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A firm level perspective on migration: the role of extra-EU workers in Italian manufacturing

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  • Giulia Bettin
  • Alessia Lo Turco
  • Daniela Maggioni

Abstract

A production-theory approach to migration is adopted in this paper to address the role of migrant workers from extra-EU countries in Italian manufacturing firms. The adoption of flexible functional forms to model firm-level technology lets us directly derive different measures of elasticity from the coefficients of the estimated production and cost functions. The use of foreign labour is shown to affect the industry composition in favour of low skill intensive sectors and the estimated cross demand elasticities confirm the complementarity between migrant and native workers found in previous studies. However, the two labour inputs prove to be substitutes in terms of the Morishima elasticity of substitution: in general, firms tend to increase the foreign labour intensity of production in response to a decline in migrants’ wage, while the migrant to domestic labour ratio responds to changes in the domestic workers’ wage only for firms in low skill intensive sectors. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Giulia Bettin & Alessia Lo Turco & Daniela Maggioni, 2014. "A firm level perspective on migration: the role of extra-EU workers in Italian manufacturing," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 305-325, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jproda:v:42:y:2014:i:3:p:305-325
    DOI: 10.1007/s11123-014-0390-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Haller, Stefanie A. & Hyland, Marie, 2014. "Capital–energy substitution: Evidence from a panel of Irish manufacturing firms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 501-510.
    2. Ivan Etzo & Carla Massidda & Romano Piras, 2020. "Do Firms Follow Immigrants? Empirical Evidence From Italy," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 111(5), pages 718-737, December.
    3. Ivan Etzo & Carla Massidda & Paolo Mattana & Romano Piras, 2017. "The impact of immigration on output and its components: a sectoral analysis for Italy at regional level," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 34(3), pages 533-564, December.
    4. Rama Dasi Mariani & Alessandra Pasquini & Furio Camillo Rosati, 2023. "The Immigration Puzzle in Italy: A Survey of Evidence and Facts," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 9(1), pages 85-116, March.
    5. Riccardo Fiorentini & Alina Verashchagina, 2017. "Immigration and Trade: The Case Study of Veneto Region in Italy," Working Papers 03/2017, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    6. Rama Dasi Mariani & Alessandra Pasquini & Furio Camillo Rosati, 2020. "Elementary Facts About Immigration in Italy. What Do We Know About Immigration and Its Impact," CEIS Research Paper 488, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 28 May 2020.
    7. Alessandra Michelangeli & Nicola Pontarollo & Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti, 2019. "Ethnic minority concentration: A source of productivity growth for Italian provinces?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(1), pages 17-34, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Migrant workers; Output elasticity; Morishima elasticity of substitution; Translog; F22; D22; J61; L60;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General

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