Short-Run Supply Responses of Professional Nurses: A Microanalysis

This article presents estimates of labor supply functions for married and single professional nurses using a twin linear probability approach and Tobit analysis. Data on individual nurses and their families come from the Public Use Sample of the 1960 Census of the United States. The results imply a substantial supply response to the nurse's hourly wage and the wage of the nurse's spouse. Policy issues include the relationship of our evidence to the hypothesis that hospitals exercise monopsony power and the relative merits of increasing the supply of RN services by raising nurse wages versus an educational policy aimed at increasing the number of nursing school graduates.