Immigrant Workers and Farm Performance: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data

TY - UNPB

T1 - Immigrant Workers and Farm Performance

T2 - Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data

AU - Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj

AU - Munch, Jakob R.

AU - Seidelin, Claus Aastrup

AU - Skaksen, Jan Rose

N1 - JEL Classification: J61, J43

PY - 2013/7

Y1 - 2013/7

N2 - In many developed countries, the agricultural sector has experienced a significant inflow of immigrants. At the same time, agriculture is still in a process of structural transformation, resulting in fewer but larger and presumably more efficient farms. We exploit matched employer-employee data for Danish farms in 1980-2008 to analyze the micro-level relationship between these two developments. Farms employing immigrants tend to be both larger than and no less productive than other farms. Furthermore, an increased use of immigrants is associated with an improvement in job creation and revenue, which at least partially seems to reflect a causal effect of immigrants.

AB - In many developed countries, the agricultural sector has experienced a significant inflow of immigrants. At the same time, agriculture is still in a process of structural transformation, resulting in fewer but larger and presumably more efficient farms. We exploit matched employer-employee data for Danish farms in 1980-2008 to analyze the micro-level relationship between these two developments. Farms employing immigrants tend to be both larger than and no less productive than other farms. Furthermore, an increased use of immigrants is associated with an improvement in job creation and revenue, which at least partially seems to reflect a causal effect of immigrants.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - immigration

KW - agriculture

KW - matched employer-employee data

M3 - Working paper

BT - Immigrant Workers and Farm Performance

PB - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

ER -