Immigrant workforce and agriculture productivity: evidence from Italian farm-level data

This paper investigates the farm-level relationship between total factor productivity(TFP) and presence and composition of immigrant workers. A theoretical modelexpressing how immigrant workforce influences productivity is developed and anexplicit and consistent representation of the so-called ‘diversity hypothesis’ is derived.A dynamic panel specification is estimated, and the respective econometric issues arediscussed. The analysis is applied to a balanced panel of Italian professional farmsextracted from the Farm Accountancy Data Network over the period 2008–2015. Theuse of micro-level data in such assessment allows to take the wide heterogeneity acrossfarms into account. Results suggest that, when productivity dynamics and farm heterogeneity are accounted for, empirical support to the diversity hypothesis can be found in Italian professional agriculture.