Missing Work Is a Pain

How does medical innovation affect labor supply? We analyze how the availability of Cox-2 inhibitors, used for treating pain and inflammation, affected the sickness absence and disability receipt of individuals with joint pain. We exploit the market entry of the Cox-2 inhibitor Vioxx its sudden market withdrawal as exogenous sources of variation in drug use. Using Norwegian data, we find Vioxx’s entry decreased quarterly sickness absence days among individuals joint pain by 7-11 percent. The withdrawal increased sickness days by 12-21 percent and increased quarterly probability of receiving disability benefits by 0.4-0.6 percentage points.