Immigration and the Reallocation of Work Health Risks

Date: December, 19th - 12h

Room: 23.103 (Mercè Rodoreda Building) - Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

Abstract: This paper studies the effects of immigration on the allocation of occupational physical burden and work injury risks. Using data for England and Wales from the Labour Force Survey (2003-2013), we find that, on average, immigration leads to a reallocation of UK-born workers towards jobs characterized by lower physical intensity and injury risk. The results also show important differences across skill groups. Immigration reduces the average physical burden of UK-born workers with medium levels of education, but has no significant effect on those with low levels. These findings, together with the evidence that immigrants report lower injury rates than natives, suggest that the reallocation of tasks could reduce overall health care costs and the human and financial costs typically associated with workplace injuries.

Biography: Fellow Researcher at the Centre for Health Service Economics & Organization, Departament of Economics, University of Oxford; and associate researcher at the Centre in Research in Economics and Health (CRES). Her research interests are Applied Micro-Econometrics, Labor Economics, Health Economics and Retirement

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