Nurses' labour supply with an endogenous choice of care level and shift type : a nested discrete choice model with nonlinear income.

It is argued that increasing wages will not only attract more nurses to the health sector, but also increase the number of hours worked for those already there. This article focuses on the response of registered nurses employed in the public sector when they are allowed to endogenously choose between jobs in hospitals and primary care and between day and shift work. A structural labour supply model is estimated on Norwegian micro-data with job-specific wages and hours. The simulation of an overall public wage increase indicates a reduction in total hours. Thus, in contrast to the claim, the income effect seems to dominate in the labour supply of health sector employees.