The labour market for nursing: a review of the labour supply literature

Abstract

The need to ensure adequate numbers of motivated health professionals is at the forefront of the modernisation of the UK NHS. The aim of this paper is to assess current understanding of the labour supply behaviour of nurses, and to propose an agenda for further research. In particular, the paper reviews American and British economics literature that focuses on empirical econometric studies based on the classical static labour supply model. American research could be classified into first generation, second generation and recent empirical evidence. Advances in methods mirror those in the general labour economics literature, and include the use of limited dependent variable models and the treatment of sample selection issues. However, there is considerable variation in results, which depends on the methods used, particularly on the effect of wages. Only one study was found that used UK data, although other studies examined the determinants of turnover, quit rates and job satisfaction. The agenda for further empirical research includes the analysis of discontinuities in the labour supply function, the relative importance of pecuniary and non-pecuniary job characteristics, and the application of dynamic and family labour supply models to nursing research. Such research is crucial to the development of evidence-based policies.

Managerial talent, motivation, and self-selection into public management

“…We develop a model of a perfectly competitive economy with two job types, worker and manager, and two sectors, the public and the private sector. The sectors differ only in the kind of good that is produced; pro- 2 Similar recommendations can be found in a report from the OECD (2001) that studies countries' experiences with recruiting and retaining public sector personnel. The report concludes that "The public sector is not usually able to compete with the salaries offered by private employers, especially those of highly-educated personnel and managers.…”

“…1 Research consists of universities and research institutes. 2 Only university hospitals were surveyed.…”

Labour markets in the NHS: an agenda for research

“…The factors influencing this choice appear to have changed in recent years [2]. This is because the range of jobs open to women, who still constitute the vast majority of new entrants to nursing, has expanded substantially.…”

The Lemons Problem in a Labor Market with Intrinsic Motivation - When Higher Salaries Pay Worse Workers

“……rms in the vocational sector use incentive schemes. 2 We compare the ine¢ ciency caused by adverse selection in the Vocational Lemons Model with that in the Standard Lemons Model in which intrinsic motivation is irrelevant and does not a¤ect workers' participation constraint. We show that a vocational market attracts high vocation workers characterized, also, by high productivity.…”