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IZA Discussion Paper No. 17895
May 2025
An Overworked Leave? Health Care Workforce Effects of Brexit

We study the impact of the Brexit referendum on the quality of employment and working conditions of workers in the National Health Service (NHS). We use a difference-in-differences (DiD) design and propensity score matching to compare NHS employees with a control group referring to occupations less exposed to employees from the European Union (EU) before Brexit. We document that Brexit led to the average reduction of job satisfaction by 1.39% - largest for physicians (2.6%) and nurses (2.4%) - and an increase of both paid (1.75 hours/week) and unpaid working hours (8.3 hours/week). Nonetheless, the effect was heterogeneous despite the general rise in working time. Indeed, job satisfaction fell by 2.6% among British workers but increased by 3% among overseas workers. These changes were accompanied by a comparable reduction in leisure time and a higher likelihood of workers intending to leave their jobs, suggesting broader behavioural effects that may undermine NHS productivity.

Kommunikation
Mark Fallak
mark.fallak@liser.lu
+352 585-855-526
World of Labour
Olga Nottmeyer
olga.nottmeyer@liser.lu
+352 585-855-501
Netzwerkkoordination
Christina Gathmann
christina.gathmann@liser.lu

Das IZA@LISER-Netzwerk ist eine weltweite Gemeinschaft für exzellente Forschung in der Arbeitsmarktökonomie und angrenzenden Fachgebieten. Nach dem Wechsel von Bonn wird das Netzwerk nun am Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) koordiniert.

Über das IZA@LISER Network
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