Firms Left Behind: Emigration and Firm Productivity

Yvonne Giesing and Nadzeya Laurentsyeva ()

No 6815, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: This paper establishes a causal link between the emigration of skilled workers and firm performance in source countries. Using firm-level panel data from ten Eastern European countries, we show that the emigration of skilled workers lowers firm total factor productivity. We exploit time, country, and industry differences in the opening of EU labor markets from 2004 to 2014 as a source of exogenous variation in the emigration rates from new EU member states. We argue that a potential channel behind this effect relates to the reduction in firm-specific human capital due to a higher worker turnover.

Keywords: migration; firm productivity; human capital; EU enlargement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 F22 J24 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eff, nep-hrm, nep-int, nep-mig and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6815

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