The effect of intra- and inter-regional labour mobility on plant performance in Denmark: the significance of related labour inflows

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of labour mobility on plant performance in Denmark.
\nOur study shows that the effect of labour mobility can only be assessed when one accounts
\nfor the type of skills that flow into the plant and the degree to which these match the
\nexisting skills at the plant level. As expected, we found that the inflow of skills that are
\nrelated to skills in the plant impacts positively on plant productivity growth, while inflows of
\nskills that are similar to the plant skills have a negative effect. We used a sophisticated
\nindicator of revealed relatedness that measures the degree of skill relatedness between
\nsectors on the basis of the intensity of labour flows between sectors. Intra-regional mobility
\nof skilled labour had a negative effect on plant performance, but the impacts of intra- and
\ninter-regional mobility depended on the type of skills that flow into the plant.