In this paper, I study the effects of sickness benefit generosity on the number of benefit recipients and the duration of sick leaves in Finland. I exploit policy reforms that introduced variation over time in the generosity of the statutory sickness allowance, as well as collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) that create differences in top-up sick pay across industries, occupations, and employees with varying levels of seniority and experience. I present novel, self-collected data containing agreement-level information on sick pay terms from CBAs and link these data to individual-level administrative registers covering nearly the entire Finnish population. To estimate the elasticities, I apply difference-in-differences, regression kink design, and bunching methods. Preliminary results suggest that the extensive and intensive margin elasticities -capturing the effects of the replacement rate on sick leave incidence and duration- are approximately 0.6 and 0.2, respectively.

We study how exposure to severe illness affects prosocial behavior using Swedish administrative data linking cancer diagnoses and deaths to charitable donations and family networks. Exploiting variation in timing, we estimate causal effects on giving. A cancer diagnosis leads to a persistent increase in donations concentrated in cancer-related causes, driven primarily by entry into giving and, to a lesser extent, increased persistence. Effects extend to family members and decline with kinship distance. In contrast, cancer-related deaths generate larger but transitory responses. Heterogeneity by severity and patient age suggests that responses scale with emotional intensity and personal relevance.

We examine the impacts of alcohol sales restrictions and taxation on alcohol consumption, focusing on government monopolies in Finland and Sweden where limited private sales are permitted. Leveraging two reforms that relaxed sales restrictions alongside changes in tax rates, we use product- and store-level monthly sales data from state monopolies and private grocery chains spanning a decade. We find that sales of newly permitted grocery store products rose to roughly 500% of their prior monopoly levels. However, large substitution effects between product categories and between monopoly and grocery stores render the net effect of the 2018 reform on total consumption negligible. We also document spillover effects to more distant product categories. Preliminary results from the 2024 reform align with these findings. Overall, our results suggest alcohol sales restrictions generate welfare losses with very limited gains in reducing consumption. We discuss potential mechanisms using theory and survey evidence.

This paper explores how individuals optimally contribute to Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). The use-it-or-lose-it provision associated with these accounts introduces risk for users when deciding their contribution amounts. Since users forfeit unused funds, but also reduce their tax liability by contributing, it is unclear whether FSA holders will experience a net gain or net loss from utilizing these accounts. I model this decision-making process to understand the constraints faced by users. I use the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and find descriptive evidence that (i) FSA users change their contribution behavior over time, (ii) some perceived mistakes in FSA contributions may be due to inexperience, and (iii) forfeitures may happen due to unexpected decreases in medical expenses. I am currently working on updating this empirical work to understand how FSA-users learn from experience with these accounts, using 10 years of employee-level FSA-use data from a large public employer.