← Search

When Nurses Travel: Labor Supply Responses to Peak Demand for Nurses

Joshua D. Gottlieb¹; Avi Zenilman²

¹ University of Chicago and NBER [email protected] · ² Corner Three Partners [email protected]

We study how a market uses temporary workers to accommodate extraordinary demand shocks. When COVID-19 surges, hospitals need additional nurses—especially in specialties central to COVID-19 care. By comparing markets for COVID-relevant and other specialties, we show that the market for travel nurses expands dramatically and estimate travel nurse labor supply across space. Supply is quite elastic, as workers can choose to travel where they are needed. Workers travel longer distances to temporary jobs when payment increases, suggesting that an integrated national market facilitates reallocation when demand spikes. But when national cases peak, travel distance is less responsive to local demand.

DOI

10.1162/rest_a_01448

Pages

1-28

Language

en

Export

BibTeX

Sources

openalex crossref