IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iaae06/25505.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Immigrant Workers and Technological Change in U.S. Agriculture: A Profit Maximization Approach of Induced Innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Napasintuwong, Orachos
  • Emerson, Robert D.

Abstract

This paper analyzes changes in U.S. agricultural technology during 1960-1999, emphasizing the role of immigrant workers on farm mechanization. The rates and directions of biased technological change based on the induced innovation theory are compared before and after the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 which was intended to reduce employment of unauthorized workers. Unlike previous studies of induced innovation, this paper develops a new theoretical and empirical model of induced innovation using a profit maximization approach. The contribution of the profit maximization approach is that it allows changes in output combinations as a result of technological change. We found that the technology was biased against hired and self-employed labor, and toward capital during the study period. Although the bias against labor diminished considerably after 1986, the bias toward capital did not change appreciably after 1986. An important insight via the profit maximization approach is that the technology became biased in favor of labor intensive, perishable crops after 1986.

Suggested Citation

  • Napasintuwong, Orachos & Emerson, Robert D., 2006. "Immigrant Workers and Technological Change in U.S. Agriculture: A Profit Maximization Approach of Induced Innovation," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25505, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae06:25505
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.25505
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/25505/files/cp060071.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.25505?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Binswanger, Hans P, 1974. "The Measurement of Technical Change Biases with Many Factors of Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 964-976, December.
    2. Ball, V. Eldon & Butault, Jean-Pierre & Nehring, Richard F., 2001. "U.S. Agriculture, 1960-96 A Multilateral Comparison of Total Factor Productivity," Technical Bulletins 33590, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Hayami, Yujiro & Ruttan, V W, 1970. "Factor Prices and Technical Change in Agricultural Development: The United States and Japan, 1880-1960," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(5), pages 1115-1141, Sept.-Oct.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kimhi, Ayal, 2015. "Is foreign farm labor a blessing or a curse? Evidence from Israel," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211852, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Kimhi, Ayal, 2014. "Are Migrant Agricultural Workers Replacing the Local Workforce?," Discussion Papers 290033, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Napasintuwong, Orachos & Emerson, Robert D., 2003. "Farm Mechanization And The Farm Labor Market: A Socioeconomic Model Of Induced Innovation," 2003 Annual Meeting, February 1-5, 2003, Mobile, Alabama 35117, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    2. Yucan Liu & C. Richard Shumway, 2009. "Induced Innovation in U.S. Agriculture: Time-series, Direct Econometric, and Nonparametric Tests," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(1), pages 224-236.
    3. Liu, Yucan & Shumway, C. Richard, 2009. "Induced innovation and marginal cost of new technology," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 106-109, October.
    4. Pardey, Philip G. & Alston, Julian M. & Ruttan, Vernon W., 2010. "The Economics of Innovation and Technical Change in Agriculture," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 939-984, Elsevier.
    5. Napasintuwong, Orachos & Emerson, Robert D., 2002. "Induced Innovations And Foreign Workers In U.S. Agriculture," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19738, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Alston, Julian M. & Chalfant, James A. & Pardey, Philip G., 1993. "Structural Adjustment In Oecd Agriculture: Government Policies And Technical Change," Working Papers 14473, University of Minnesota, Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy.
    7. Bretschger, Lucas & Zhang, Lin, 2017. "Carbon policy in a high-growth economy: The case of China," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-19.
    8. Fernando S. Machado, 1995. "Testing The Induced Innovation Hypothesis Using Cointegration Analysis," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 349-360, September.
    9. Queiroz, Pedro & Fulginiti, Lilyan & Perrin, Richard, 2021. "Induced Innovation in South American Agriculture: Deforestation and Directed Technical Change," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315416, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Liu, Qinghua & Shumway, C. Richard, 2003. "Induced Innovation Tests On Western American Agriculture: A Cointegration Analysis," 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada 22237, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    11. Shenggen Fan & Vernon W. Ruttan, 1992. "Induced technical change in centrally planned economies," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 6(4), pages 301-314, April.
    12. Zhang, Lin, 2017. "The knowledge spillover effects of FDI on the productivity and efficiency of research activities in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1-14.
    13. F. Shirani Bidabadi & M. Hashemitabar, 2009. "The induced innovation test (co-integration analysis) of Iranian agriculture," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 55(3), pages 126-133.
    14. Benson, Aaron & Shumway, C. Richard, 2005. "Induced Innovation or a Paradox of Environmental Regulation?," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19450, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    15. Queiroz, P. & Silva, F.D.F. & Fulginiti, L., 2018. "How did technical change affect land use in Brazilian agriculture?," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277318, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Orachos Napasintuwong Artachinda, 2011. "Modeling Directions of Technical Change in Agricultural Sector," Working Papers 201101, Kasetsart University, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    17. Noel Uri, 2001. "Telecommunications in the United States and Changing Productive Efficiency," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 321-335, September.
    18. Beatriz Muriel & Carlos Gustavo Machicado, 2012. "Employment and Labor Regulation: Evidence from Manufacturing Firms in Bolivia, 1988-2007," Development Research Working Paper Series 07/2012, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.
    19. Uri, Noel D., 2001. "Technical efficiency, allocative efficiency, and the impact of incentive regulation in telecommunications in the United States," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 59-73, March.
    20. Tasso Adamopoulos & Diego Restuccia, 2014. "The Size Distribution of Farms and International Productivity Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1667-1697, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:iaae06:25505. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.