Abstract
According to Di Martino, 1992 and Cox, 1993; stress is the result of an interactive process between the individual and the situation, meaning a perceived imbalance between demands and available resources needed to cope with them (Hoel, Sparks & Cooper). Problems of stress, especially at work, are more and more discussed through the whole world, as stress is generally recognized as badly affecting people, creating both physical and psychological negative effects or even conditions (Cox et al., 2000).
These damages to global health are costly for people, organizations and societies; numerous studies have been conducted by scientists or organizations such as the International Labor Organization, in Geneva, in order to determine the economic cost of stress. However the employed methods are very different and the results are only estimations, aiming at attracting or shocking readers (Grosjean, Trontin et al., 2005).
In this paper we will first define the notion of economic cost of stress, then expose a few statistics coming from various studies and explain how calculations can be made and what variable are to be included. We will finally explain why this notion is particularly difficult to quantify.
