IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/worlde/v47y2024i2p590-617.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Extra‐EU immigrants and labour productivity: New evidence from Italian firms

Author

Listed:
  • Claudia Vittori
  • Andrea Ricci
  • Valentina Ferri

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of extra‐EU workers on labour productivity in Italy. To this aim, we take advantage of firm‐level data derived from the Rilevazione Imprese e Lavoro (RIL‐AIDA) surveys merged with the AIDA‐Bureau Van Dijk archive over the period 2007–2015. Using an econometric strategy that accounts for firms' observed heterogeneity and endogeneity issues, we obtain the following results. First, an increase in the share of extra‐EU workers leads to a decline in labour productivity. Second, the relationship between extra‐EU workers and productivity appears to be different between firms located in centre‐north and those in southern regions. Third, the share of extra‐EU workers is also associated with a decline in average wages and sales per employee, even though this effect is less than that observed for productivity. Our findings support the hypothesis that the demand of immigrants arises as a labour cost reduction strategy and hence tends to weaken firms' competitiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudia Vittori & Andrea Ricci & Valentina Ferri, 2024. "Extra‐EU immigrants and labour productivity: New evidence from Italian firms," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 590-617, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:47:y:2024:i:2:p:590-617
    DOI: 10.1111/twec.13430
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/twec.13430
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/twec.13430?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:47:y:2024:i:2:p:590-617. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0378-5920 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.