Agricultural Economics & Economics

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Situated jointly within MSU's College of Agriculture and College of Letters and Sciences, our department offers a unique opportunity for students with diverse interests to learn skills in critical analysis, logical problem solving, data and policy analysis, written and oral communication, business management. We train individuals who will make a big difference in the world by applying solid critical thinking skills. Our award-winning faculty has expertise in a wide variety of fields. We conduct cutting-edge research and teach a myriad of courses.

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    Housing booms and H‐2A agricultural guest worker employment
    (Wiley, 2022-05) Castillo, Marcelo; Charlton, Diane
    This paper examines the effects of changes in housing demand on H-2A employment within commuting zones from 2001-2017. Agricultural employers who demonstrate that no workers in the domestic labor market are willing or able to perform a seasonal or temporary farm job can apply for certification to hire guest workers through the H-2A visa program. H-2A employment grew more than 450% between 2001 and 2019 from 45,000 to 258,000. This is one of the first papers to econometrically examine causal factors that contributed to the growth of H-2A employment. We find that a 1% increase in housing demand leads to a 0.40-0.97% increase in H-2A employment. We also show suggestive evidence that changes in housing demand affect H-2A employment through shifts in the demand for workers in non-farm industries that pull workers from the agricultural sector. Consistent with previous literature, we show that positive housing demand shocks lead to increased employment in construction and other nontradable sectors that traditionally hire immigrant workers. We also find positive effects of housing demand on local farm wages, consistent with an inward shift in the local farm labor supply during housing booms.
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    Seasonal farm labor and COVID ‐19 spread
    (Wiley, 2022-09) Charlton, Diane
    The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused unprecedented shocks to agricultural food systems, including increased risk to worker health, labor-related input costs, and production uncertainty. Despite employer precautions, there were numerous worksite outbreaks of COVID-19. This paper examines the relationship between month-to-month variation in historical agricultural employment and changes in the incidence of confirmed COVID-19cases and deaths within U.S. counties from April to August 2020. The results show that employment of100 additional workers in fruit, vegetable, and horticultural production was associated with 4.5% more COVID-19 cases within counties or an additional 18.65 COVID-19 cases and 0.34 additional COVID-19 deaths per 100,000individuals in the county workforce.
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    Potential Impacts of a Pandemic on the US Farm Labor Market
    (Wiley, 2020-10) Charlton, Diane; Castillo, Marcelo
    An outbreak of COVID-19 among farmworkers could have significant impacts on the workers, agricultural producers, and the consumers. Farmers are implementing new labor management practices to slow the spread of the virus among workers. Since immigration is temporarily restricted, farmers may have difficulty securing a sufficient workforce. We test whether changes in the unemployment rate affected H-2A guest worker demand before the pandemic and find a statistically significant negative impact. Nevertheless, we expect that H-2A recruitment will be vital to sustaining agricultural production. We conclude by discussing potential long-term impacts of the pandemic on farm labor supply and demand.
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