Temporary employment decisions of registered nurses

The decision whether or not to work for a temporary agency was examined using a 1990 cross-section survey of Illinois registered nurses and a model which corrects for the simultaneity between agency choice and wages (and benefits). Conditional on having decided to work, preschool children, age, and being female have significant positive effects on the decision to work for an agency, while spousal income, experience, and being white have significant negative effects. School-age children have no effect. Nurses who work for agencies value wages more in relation to benefits than nurses who work for more traditional employers.