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

Nikolaj Malchow-Møller, Jakob Munch, Claus Aastrup Seidelin () and Jan Rose Skaksen ()
Additional contact information
Claus Aastrup Seidelin: University of Southern Denmark
Jan Rose Skaksen: Rockwool Foundation Research Unit

No 7133, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Many developed countries have recently experienced a significant inflow of immigrants in the agricultural sector. At the same time, the sector is still in a process of structural transformation resulting in fewer but bigger and presumably more efficient farms. In this paper, we exploit detailed matched employer-employee data for the entire population of Danish farms in the period 1980-2008 to analyze the micro-level relationship between these two developments. We find that farms that employ immigrants tend to be both larger and at least as productive as other farms. Furthermore, an increased use of immigrants is found to be associated with an improvement in farm performance as measured by job creation and revenue, and this seems at least in part to reflect a causal effect of the immigrants.

Keywords: agriculture; matched employer-employee data; immigration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J43 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2013-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dem, nep-eff, nep-eur, nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published - published in: American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2013, 95 (4), 819-841

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Journal Article: Immigrant Workers and Farm Performance: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data (2013)
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