IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/usdami/315417.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

COVID-19 Working Paper: Meatpacking Working Conditions and the Spread of COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Krumel, Thomas
  • Goodrich, Corey

Abstract

This preliminary analysis explores how working conditions in meatpacking plants might have contributed to the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) was used to construct a set of industry-level working condition variables and compare meatpacking to the sample of other manufacturing industries in our comparison group. This novel approach showed that proximity to others in the meatpacking industry is likely the main factor that influenced the spread of COVID-19, nearly three standard deviations higher in meatpacking than our comparison sample of other manufacturing industries. Overall exposure to disease was also found to be 2.5 standard deviations higher in the meatpacking industry compared to other manufacturing industries. Subsequently, we performed a county-level analysis on COVID-19 spread, comparing rural counties that have a large number of meatpacking plants to other nonmetropolitan counties that were dependent on a single manufacturing industry, using the time frame of mid-March to mid-September of 2020. Data analysis begins in mid-March since confirmed cases became national in scope at this point. In mid-April 2020, COVID-19 cases in meatpacking-dependent rural counties rose to nearly 10 times the number in comparison to rural counties dependent on other single manufacturing industries. This difference disappears completely by mid-July, driven by a reduction in COVID-19 cases in the meatpacking industry rather than an increase in other industries, and holds steady through mid-September. The paper concludes by collating evidence from other studies to infer that the meatpacking industry's increased precautions to protect workers help explain why no difference was observed between meatpacking-dependent counties and our comparison group for the final 2 months of the study period. However, this inference should be viewed as suggestive since it cannot formally test using the data referenced in the working paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Krumel, Thomas & Goodrich, Corey, 2021. "COVID-19 Working Paper: Meatpacking Working Conditions and the Spread of COVID-19," USDA Miscellaneous 315417, United States Department of Agriculture.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:usdami:315417
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.315417
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/315417/files/COVID-19%20Working%20Paper_Meatpacking%20Working%20Conditions%20and%20the%20Spread%20of%20COVID-19.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.315417?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Markowitz, Sara & Nesson, Erik & Robinson, Joshua J., 2019. "The effects of employment on influenza rates," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 286-295.
    2. Forsythe, Eliza & Kahn, Lisa B. & Lange, Fabian & Wiczer, David, 2020. "Labor demand in the time of COVID-19: Evidence from vacancy postings and UI claims," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    3. Artz, Georgeanne M. & Jackson, Rebecca & Orazem, Peter F., 2010. "Is It a Jungle Out There? Meat Packing, Immigrants, and Rural Communities," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 1-17, August.
    4. Pia Orrenius & Madeline Zavodny, 2009. "Do immigrants work in riskier jobs?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(3), pages 535-551, August.
    5. Schott, Peter & Yang, Natalie & Eckert, Fabian & Fort, Teresa, 2020. "Imputing Missing Values in the US Census Bureau's County Business Patterns," CEPR Discussion Papers 14352, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Dell Champlin & Eric Hake, 2006. "Immigration as industrial strategy in American meatpacking," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 49-70.
    7. William Kandel & Emilio A. Parrado, 2005. "Restructuring of the US Meat Processing Industry and New Hispanic Migrant Destinations," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 31(3), pages 447-471, September.
    8. Cromartie, John & Dobis, Elizabeth & Krumel, Thomas & Mcgranahan,David & Pender, John, 2020. "Rural America at a Glance: 2020 Edition," Amber Waves:The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, vol. 2020, December.
    9. Lewandowski, Piotr, 2020. "Occupational Exposure to Contagion and the Spread of COVID-19 in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 13227, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Krumel, Thomas P. Jr., 2017. "Anti-Immigration Reform and Reductions in Welfare: Evidence from the Meatpacking Industry," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 32(1), April.
    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. Baldwin, Katherine & Williams, Brian & Tsiboe, Francis & Effland, Anne & Turner, Dylan & Pratt, Bryan & Jones, Jordan & Toossi, Saied & Hodges, Leslie, 2023. "U.S. Agricultural Policy Review, 2021," USDA Miscellaneous 333549, United States Department of Agriculture.
    2. repec:ags:aaea22:341195 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Azzam, Azzeddine & Gren, Ing-Marie & Andersson, Hans, 2023. "Comparative resilience of US and EU meat processing to the Covid19 pandemic," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    4. Nelson, Peter & Cromartie, John, 2022. "COVID-19 Working Paper: Migration, Local Mobility, and the spread of COVID-19 in Rural America," USDA Miscellaneous 333531, United States Department of Agriculture.

    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. Louis‐Philippe Beland & Abel Brodeur & Derek Mikola & Taylor Wright, 2022. "The short‐term economic consequences of COVID‐19: Occupation tasks and mental health in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(S1), pages 214-247, February.
    2. Daniel T. Lichter & Kenneth M. Johnson, 2020. "A Demographic Lifeline? Immigration and Hispanic Population Growth in Rural America," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 39(5), pages 785-803, October.
    3. Louis-Philippe Beland & Oluwatobi Fakorede & Derek Mikola, 2020. "Short-Term Effect of COVID-19 on Self-Employed Workers in Canada," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 46(S1), pages 66-81, July.
    4. Brandily, Paul & Brébion, Clément & Briole, Simon & Khoury, Laura, 2020. "A Poorly Understood Disease? The Unequal Distribution of Excess Mortality Due to COVID-19 Across French Municipalities," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 15/2020, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    5. Gabriele Ciminelli & Sílvia Garcia‐Mandicó, 2022. "When and how do business shutdowns work? Evidence from Italy's first COVID‐19 wave," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(9), pages 1823-1843, September.
    6. Gopi Shah Goda & Emilie Jackson & Lauren Hersch Nicholas & Sarah See Stith, 2023. "The impact of Covid-19 on older workers’ employment and Social Security spillovers," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 813-846, April.
    7. Couch, Kenneth A. & Fairlie, Robert W. & Xu, Huanan, 2020. "Early evidence of the impacts of COVID-19 on minority unemployment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    8. Fernando Riosmena & Douglas S. Massey, 2012. "Pathways to El Norte: Origins, Destinations, and Characteristics of Mexican Migrants to the United States," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 3-36, March.
    9. Arendt, Lukasz & Gałecka-Burdziak, Ewa & Núñez, Fernando & Pater, Robert & Usabiaga, Carlos, 2023. "Skills requirements across task-content groups in Poland: What online job offers tell us," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    10. Abel Brodeur & David Gray & Anik Islam & Suraiya Bhuiyan, 2021. "A literature review of the economics of COVID‐19," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1007-1044, September.
    11. Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," Working Papers 2020-174, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    12. Basak Yanar & Agnieszka Kosny & Peter M. Smith, 2018. "Occupational Health and Safety Vulnerability of Recent Immigrants and Refugees," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, September.
    13. Chen, Chien-fei & Liu, Yuanyang & Greig, Jamie Alexander & Shen, Zhenglai & Shi, Yunye, 2022. "The impacts of COVID-19 on clean energy labor markets: Evidence from multifaceted analysis of public health interventions and COVID-health factors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    14. Kim, Dongin & Steinbach, Sandro, 2021. "Spillover effects of foreign direct investment in the United States: County-level evidence from the food industry," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313983, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Basso, Gaetano & Boeri, Tito & Caiumi, Alessandro & Paccagnella, Marco, 2020. "The New Hazardous Jobs and Worker Reallocation," IZA Discussion Papers 13532, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Funashima, Yoshito & Hiraga, Kazuki, 2023. "Did the Japanese government’s travel subsidy increase the number of hotel guests and infection during the COVID-19 pandemic?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1005-1025.
    17. Don Mar & Paul Ong & Tom Larson & James Peoples, 2022. "Racial and ethnic disparities in who receives unemployment benefits during COVID-19," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(8), pages 1-17, August.
    18. Louis-Philippe Beland & Abel Brodeur & Taylor Wright, 2020. "COVID-19, Stay-at-Home Orders and Employment: Evidence from CPS Data," Carleton Economic Papers 20-04, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 19 May 2020.
    19. Maciej Berk{e}sewicz & Herman Cherniaiev & Robert Pater, 2021. "Estimating the number of entities with vacancies using administrative and online data," Papers 2106.03263, arXiv.org.
    20. Bloom, Nicholas & Davis, Steven J. & Hansen, Stephen & Lambert, Peter John & Sadun, Raffaella & Taska, Bledi, 2023. "Remote work across jobs, companies and space," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121302, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agribusiness; Crop Production/Industries; Health Economics and Policy; Industrial Organization; Livestock Production/Industries;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:usdami:315417. 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: http://www.usda.gov .

    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.