Farm Employment, Immigration, and Poverty: A Structural Analysis

Philip L. Martin and J. Edward Taylor

Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 2003, vol. 28, issue 2, 15

Abstract: This study tests for structural change in the poverty-farm employment relationship between 1980 and 1990. Econometric findings from a partially simultaneous block triangular regression model estimated with census data reveal a circular relationship between farm employment and immigration that was associated with a significant decrease in the number of people in impoverished U.S. households in 1980. However, in 1990, the farm employment-poverty relationship reversed: an additional farm job was associated with an increase in poverty. Our findings suggest immigration to fill low-skilled farm jobs is transferring poverty from rural Mexico to communities in the United States.

Keywords: Food Security and Poverty; Labor and Human Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:jlaare:31095

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.31095

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