Discussion: Critical Issues in Agricultural Labor Markets

This paper addresses labor market policies and institutions relevant principally to the seasonal, unskilled, hired agricultural work force including but not limited to migrant agricultural workers. The seasonal agricultural labor market and labor market institutions serving it have been subject to remarkably little systematic study by agricultural economists.' Thus, much of the following represents a structure imposed on the observables for the purpose of this exposition. Likewise, the discussion of farm labor policy is an attempt to describe explicitly what has, for the most part, been implicit policy. I begin by tracing the broad parameters of structural change in agricultural employment and the agricultural labor market during the industrialization of U.S. agriculture since World War II. I argue that implicit agricultural labor market policy has been largely oriented toward two goals: (a) transferring of unemployed and underemployed agricultural workers to other occupations in order to provide them with income and employment, while simultaneously improving the bargaining power of the remaining agricultural workers by reducing the wage-depressing effects of surplus labor; and (b) regulating employers and labor market intermediaries in order to protect agricultural workers from abuse and improve their welfare. Each of these efforts has had limited success, and for largely the same reasons. An enormous in-flow of new labor force entrants has frustrated attempts to eliminate the agricultural labor surplus. This nearly unlimited supply of workers has also introduced incentives for both employers and workers to bypass the labor market intermediaries through which agricultural labor policy has attempted to regulate agricultural labor markets, most notably the U.S. Employment Service, traditional farm labor contractors, and employer associations. It is argued that the conditions leading to the current situation are not likely to continue, and that without serious and timely efforts to reorient agricultural labor policy and to rebuild or create new labor market institutions, producers of seasonally labor-intensive commodities may face serious difficulties in adjusting to changes in labor availability and cost in the years ahead.

This paper puts forward the problem that it is necessary to train personnel that meet the modern requirements of highly dynamic developing agriculture in the conditions of digitalization of the country in the post-pandemic period. The relevance of the research topic is explained by the fact that the agricultural labor market is experiencing a shortage of young highly qualified specialists with knowledge of IT technologies in digital agriculture. At present, a modern young professional must meet the conjuncture-forming selection criteria in the agricultural labor market and have a risk-oriented thinking. It is necessary to update the structure of the formation of an effective mechanism for training highly qualified personnel on the basis of industry universities in the region. The aim of the research is to analyze the challenges facing the agricultural university in training young professionals for agriculture as a branch of the digital economy of Russia. Objectives: to develop a model for developing partnerships and promoting the employment of young professionals in a post-pandemic economy to develop optimal options for covering the personnel deficit in the agricultural sector; to form practical recommendations for regulating the labor market for young professionals. The solution of these tasks will allow training highly qualified young specialists who have all the necessary competencies and are able to meet the requirements of the modern agricultural labor market.

We use data from an agricultural labour market in which workers receive both time- and piece-rate wages and shift frequently among employers and tasks, to assess the roles of comparative advantage, information problems and preferences in determining the allocation of workers. The estimates which impose minimal structure not implied by economic theory are consistent with a one-factor productivity model, and indicate that information asymmetries are present but workers are sorted according to comparative advantage. In particular, the disproportionate presence of female workers in weeding activities is due not to worker or employer preferences but to comparative advantage and statistical discrimination.

Migrants are at risk globally to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we focus on migrant agricultural workers in Capitanata, Apulia, Southern Italy. The concept of vulnerability provides our entry point. We distinguish between structural and systemic vulnerability to capture the interplay between the two during crisis situations. Structural vulnerability is limited to a certain system domain whereas systemic vulnerability has potential to create effects on a variety of interconnected systems. Informed by stakeholder interviews and documentary analysis, we elaborate a framework that accounts for how long-standing structural vulnerabilities have interacted with the COVID-19 crisis to produce adverse outcomes for migrant agricultural workers, while exposing the vulnerability of three linked systems – agricultural labour market, migration and asylum and healthcare. We take account, however, of pre-existing interventions which may mitigate the impact of systemic vulnerability and of the ‘policy window’ opened by cognisance of the possible systemic failures derived from the systemic vulnerability. While the article makes an early empirical contribution to understanding one group of migrants’ vulnerability during the pandemic and the ensuing governance responses, the analytical framework developed has applicability beyond this particular group of migrants and this particular crisis, and may provide a useful tool for further research.

This study examined agripreneurial intentions among students in the state-owned tertiary institutions in Ondo State. The study profiled students’ perceptions of learning (SPOL), teachers’ impact (SPOT), and mentorship and explored the effects of these on their agripreneurial intentions. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze 120 students, who were randomly selected from the two state-owned tertiary institutions. A logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the effects of SPOL, SPOT, mentorship, as well as other socioeconomic characteristics, on students’ likelihood to have agripreneurial intentions. The study revealed that SPOL, SPOT & age significantly increased the likelihood of students having agripreneurial intentions, while perceptions of mentorship and the number of graduates in the family decreased it. Although the SPOL and SPOT were positive and statistically significant, the weak effects of the mean scores suggest that SPOL and SPOT should be improved upon to enhance students’ interest in agripreneurship.

The last chapter presented two models of occupational sorting by strength and argued that, in the more competitive portions of the labor market, the division of labor between the sexes can be explained by comparative advantage. This chapter will present statistical tests for occupational barriers in agriculture. Both discrimination and free markets would imply that men and women worked different jobs. This chapter will attempt to distinguish between those two theories by testing whether the labor market was segmented or integrated. If customary barriers kept women in certain types of work, then changes in the supply of or demand for their labor would not influence the wage or employment of male workers. However, if the division of labor was the result of the sorting models presented in the last chapter, then men and women should be substitutable, and changes in the wages of one sex should affect the labor market opportunities for the other sex. Having established that sex differences in wages and occupations are not proof of occupational segregation constraints, I will now provide evidence that the agricultural labor market did not have discriminatory occupational constraints. The results in this chapter will show that men and women were hired in an integrated labor market; employers were willing to substitute men and women workers in response to wage changes. As we shall see in later chapters, these results do not apply to the entire labor market. The evidence provided here is for agriculture only.

Agricultural labour market is one of the important factor markets as far as income and employment of the agricultural labourers are concerned. These labourers not only form a significant portion of total labour force of the country, but have also constituted a majority of the lowest income strata of the society. This is reflected from the theories relating to their emergence, as well as, the empirical evidences.

This article explores how precarious legal status circumscribes differential inclusion in the agricultural labor market and affects workers' lives through a comparative study of workplace health and safety among temporary migrant guest workers and immigrants in Canada. Original, multimethod research with South Asian immigrant and Mexican migrant farmworkers examines employment practices, working conditions, and health‐care access. We find that both groups engage in precarious work, with consequences for their health and safety, including immigrant workers with citizenship. Nevertheless, migrant guest workers are subject to more coercive forms of labor discipline and a narrower range of social protection than immigrants. We argue that while formal citizenship can mitigate some dimensions of precariousness for farmworkers racialized as non‐white, achieving a more just, safer food system will require broader policies to improve employer compliance and address legislative shortcomings that only weakly protect agricultural labor.

Therefore, this research aims to analyze the factors that influence the farmer's perspective regarding the labor provider service and the effect of the service that is used by the farmers on the technical efficiency level. This research uses the methodology that involves the utilization of logit regression analysis to test the cross-sectional data that was obtained from 200 farmers in Ngawi, Lumajang, Pasuruan, Malang in Indonesia as a sample. The measurement of technical efficiency uses the Cobb-Douglas production function with the Stochastic Production Frontier approach and the Tobit Regression model to determine the effect of labor provider business on technical efficiency. This research found that factors that influence the farmer's perception of the labor provider are age, land area, the worker’s wage, and the use of agricultural tools. The technical efficiency level can certainly still be improved by addressing the influencing factors, namely the use of information technology, agricultural mechanization, and the positive response towards the organizations that help in the availability of input, such as the labor provider service. The findings in this research provide an overview of how a farmer should perceive the agricultural labor provider service, especially in agriculture in the industrial or high labor wages areas.

This paper aims at analyzing the existence of wage differentials by genders in the agricultural labor market in the Brazilian rural area, with the purpose of verifying if the differentials are due to differences in explained characteristics or discriminatory. Equations were estimated and the wage differential detailed decomposition with microdata from the PNAD 2015 with the Heckman's correction. The method used was the decomposition of Oaxaca-Blinder. The main results show that the wage/hour of men is 157.62% higher than that of women, and the effect of discrimination is 108.38% this gap. The main conclusion indicates that the gender wage differential decreases with the formality of work and with the increase of hours worked by women. It is worth nothing that the results provide the visualization of gender discrimination in the rural labor market, adding contributions to the empirical studies on wage differentials.

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The Agricultural Labour Market in England, 1793-1872

We have proposed and estimated a Heckman-type two stage model with legal status of farm workers using an ordered probit model in the first stage and a duration model in the second stage. Using the National Agricultural Workers Survey, self-reported legal status categories are: unauthorized, authorized, permanent resident, or citizen. The duration model is estimated conditionally upon the worker's legal status to address selectivity bias. The duration estimation has significant coefficients on the selection bias correction term for all legal status equations except for that of citizen workers. The most important finding from our estimation is that unauthorized workers do not necessarily have shorter farm job durations than legal workers. First, the average predicted farm job duration for unauthorized workers is the second longest among the four legal status categories. Second, the simulation analysis indicates that the duration of the typical unauthorized worker will be longer when working under an authorized or permanent resident status.

農業労働市場の計量経済分析

Analyzing the economic policy in the field of AIC, the authors studied the main directions and priorities of public support for agricultural sector of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The analysis of current state and development trends of the industry is carried out. The problems of agro-industrial production are outlined. The measures for the implementation of agricultural policy of Kazakhstan are considered. Prospects for solving pressing issues are shown in the frame-work of the medium and long-term State programs for agricultural sector of the republic. The main principles of public support for agriculture as the most important sector of national economy are considered. Methods and forms of public support for agro-industrial complex are analyzed, where special attention is paid to government preferential subsidies and lending to AIC entities. Some aspects of employment policy in agricultural entities and agricultural labor market are considered. Based on the results of the study, conclusions were done on the importance of State regulation of the country's agricultural sector for ensuring food security, increasing the competitiveness of domestic agricultural products on domestic and foreign markets based on innovative development, creating a favorable environment for expanding business system, increasing the investment attractiveness of the industry, and financial stability of commodity producers.