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Hysteresis and the Shortage of Agricultural Labor
Author(s) -
Richards Timothy J.,
Patterson Paul M.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1244056
Subject(s) - economic shortage , incentive , agriculture , wage , labour economics , economics , business , agricultural economics , microeconomics , geography , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , government (linguistics)
Abstract Fruit and vegetable growers often allege a shortage of agricultural workers, but in a review of the H2A nonimmigrant guestworker program the General Accounting Office claims that no such shortage exists. The apparent shortage may be due to workers that are in the labor force but do not choose to take agricultural jobs. According to real options theory, when nonagricultural jobs are uncertain, workers require added incentive to invest in sectoral migration. Estimates of an arbitrage model in monthly Washington state wage data show the labor‐shortage probability to be far greater than the probability of a surplus.