Impact of Changes in Consumer Preferences on Sectoral Labour Reallocation: Evidence from the Italian Economy

This study empirically investigates the impact of changes in consumer preferences on labour reallocation across the Italian economic sectors. For this purpose, coherent sectoral time series of consumer preferences and labour units are constructed from Italian national accounts and consumption expenditure data. In line with recent firm-level evidence, empirical findings indicate a positive and significant effect of preference changes on labour reallocation. Results are robust to several econometric specifications, different procedures to elicit preference changes, as well as the introduction of time-varying price coefficient and sector-specific effects of total consumption expenditure.