Potential Impacts of a Pandemic on the US Farm Labor Market
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Date
2020-10
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
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.
Description
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [Potential Impacts of a Pandemic on the US Farm Labor Market. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy (2020)], which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13105. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions: https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing/self-archiving.html#3.
Keywords
coronavirus pandemic, farm labor, h-2a guest workers
Citation
Charlton, D., & Castillo, M. (2021). Potential impacts of a pandemic on the US farm labor market. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 43(1), 39-57.