Keeping nurses at work: a duration analysis.
A shortage of nurses is currently a problem in several countries, and an important question is therefore how one can increase the supply of nursing labour. In this paper, we focus on the issue of nurses leaving the public health sector by utilising a unique data set containing information on both the supply and demand side of the market. To describe the exit rate from the health sector we apply a semi-parametric hazard rate model. In the estimations, we correct for unobserved heterogeneity by both a parametric (Gamma) and a non-parametric approach. We find that both wages and working conditions have an impact on nurses' decision to quit. Furthermore, failing to correct for the fact that nurses' income partly consists of compensation for inconvenient working hours results in a considerable downward bias of the wage effect.
Department of Economics, University of Bergen, Norway. tor.holmas@econ.uib.no
Tor Helge
TH
Holmås
D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010563:Personnel Turnover / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D017150:Public Sector; D012042:Registries; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data