Labour Commutation in the Agricultural Sector—An Analysis of Agricultural Workers in Chile

Claudio Mancilla (), Luz Ferrada, Sergio Soza-Amigo () and Adriano Rovira
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Claudio Mancilla: Department of Administrative and Economic Sciences, Universidad de Los Lagos, Osorno 5290000, Chile
Sergio Soza-Amigo: Instituto de Gestión e Industria, Universidad Austral de Chile, Puerto Montt 5480000, Chile
Adriano Rovira: Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Instituto de Turismo, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia 5090000, Chile

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: Agricultural activity is a key strategic sector for countries, particularly for food production. One way to strengthen the sector is through the use of technology. However, while integrating new technologies, challenges have emerged in the sector with regard to incorporating workers. Thus, one way to resolve this workforce shortfall could be through labour commutation, which consists of people living in one territory but working in another. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the likelihood of agricultural workers becoming worker commuters. Chile is used as a case study, drawing on the Chilean National Employment Survey of 2018 to analyse differences among the five largest regions in the country: Great North, Small North, Central Zone, South, and Chilean Patagonia. Each zone possesses different characteristics, and a propensity score matching process was carried out within the data. The results indicate that agricultural workers with a higher education level, full-time jobs, working in the formal sector, and younger workers are more likely to commute. Different impacts of variables were found across the zones. However, most of the variables have similar impact on the likelihood to commute in different areas. Thus, from a labour perspective, public policies can create general incentives to attract a new workforce to strengthen the agricultural sector.

Keywords: agrarian employment; agrarian economy; labour commutation; likelihood to commute (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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