Peter Haan, Frei Universität Berlin & DIW

Immigration and Employment in Long-Term Care: Evidence from EU Enlargement

Abstract

Long-term care is highly labor-intensive and faces growing staffing pressure from population aging. Immigration is often proposed as a way to expand the workforce. This paper examines the effect of immigration on total and native employment in the German long-term care sector. Using administrative social security data covering the universe of long-term care workers and policy-induced exogenous variation, we find that an additional foreign-born woman per 100 inhabitants reduces native employment, while total employment remains unchanged and full-time equivalent employment increases slightly. Decomposing this adjustment shows that the effect operates entirely through reduced native entry into the sector. We further document heterogeneity across care settings and local labor market conditions. These patterns are consistent with a monopsonistic labor market and with a decline in perceived workplace quality.

Peter Haan is Professor of Public Economics at Freie Universität Berlin and Head of department of Public Economics at DIW Berlin.

Studies in Economics and Political Sciences at Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Humboldt-University Berlin and University of Toronto (degree: Diplom Volkswirt). Visiting Fellow at LSE, Paris School of Economics, Institute for Fiscal Studies und UCL London.

Publications for example in American Economic Journal Macroeconomics, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Econometrics, Economic Journal, Journal of Health Economics.

He is also Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London and the Rockwool Foundation Berlin, a member of the Sozialbeirat (advisory group in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs) and spokesperson of the DFG Research group Labor market transformation.

You can read more about Peter Haan here

CEBI contact: Thomas Høgholm Jørgensen