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An Overworked Leave? Health Care Workforce Effects of Brexit

Author

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  • Costa-Font, Joan

    (London School of Economics)

  • Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina

    (Universidad de Murcia)

Abstract

We study the impact of the Brexit referendum on the quality of employment and working conditions of workers in the National Health Service (NHS). Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) design and propensity score matching to compare NHS employees with a control group referring to occupations less exposed to employees from the European Union (EU) before Brexit. We document that Brexit led to the average reduction of job satisfaction by 1.39% - largest for physicians (2.6%) and nurses (2.4%) - and an increase of both paid (1.75 hours/week) and unpaid working hours (8.3 hours/week). Nonetheless, the effect was heterogeneous despite the general rise in working time. Indeed, job satisfaction fell by 2.6% among British workers but increased by 3% among overseas workers. These changes were accompanied by a comparable reduction in leisure time and a higher likelihood of workers intending to leave their jobs, suggesting broader behavioural effects that may undermine NHS productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2025. "An Overworked Leave? Health Care Workforce Effects of Brexit," IZA Discussion Papers 17895, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17895
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    workforce composition; health care workforce; Brexit; workforce motivation; job satisfaction; leisure satisfaction; NHS.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets

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