Domestic Farm Employment and the H-2A Visa Program

Kim Dahye, Marcelo Castillo and Zachariah Rutledge

No 339079, 2024 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 5-7, 2024, San Antonio, Texas from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: Many indicators suggest a potential decline in the domestic farmworker supply, which is often presumed to have driven agricultural employers towards an increased reliance on the H-2A visa program. Since hiring H-2A workers is generally more expensive than employing domestic farmworkers, it remains to be seen if reductions in domestic farm employment could be fully offset by increased H-2A employment. In this study, we first examine whether a recent downturn in the employment of U.S.-based Mexicanborn workers is responsible for the recent rise in H-2A employment. Subsequently, we quantify the extent to which changes in domestic farm employment impact the employment of H-2A guest workers. Our results suggest that a structural shift in the domestic farm labor market around 2011 may be responsible for the recent increase in H-2A employment. However, the rise in H-2A worker employment has not fully compensated for the decrease in domestic farm employment.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Consumer/Household Economics; Farm Management; Labor and Human Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26
Date: 2023-12-18
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:assa24:339079

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.339079

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