TY - JOUR

T1 - Immigrant Workers and Farm Performance

T2 - Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data

AU - Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj

AU - Munch, Jakob R.

AU - Seidelin, Claus Aastrup

AU - Skaksen, Jan Rose

N1 - JEL Classification: F22; Q12

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - In many developed countries, the agricultural sector has experienced a significant inflow of immigrants. At the same time, agriculture is still in a process of structural transformation, resulting in fewer but larger and presumably more efficient farms. We exploit matched employer-employee data for Danish farms in 1980–2008 to analyze the micro-level relationship between these two developments. Farms employing immigrants tend to be both larger than and no less productive than other farms. Furthermore, an increased use of immigrants is associated with an improvement in job creation and revenue, which at least partially seems to reflect a causal effect of immigrants.

AB - In many developed countries, the agricultural sector has experienced a significant inflow of immigrants. At the same time, agriculture is still in a process of structural transformation, resulting in fewer but larger and presumably more efficient farms. We exploit matched employer-employee data for Danish farms in 1980–2008 to analyze the micro-level relationship between these two developments. Farms employing immigrants tend to be both larger than and no less productive than other farms. Furthermore, an increased use of immigrants is associated with an improvement in job creation and revenue, which at least partially seems to reflect a causal effect of immigrants.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - immigrants

KW - job creation

KW - productivity

KW - revenue

U2 - 10.1093/ajae/aat010

DO - 10.1093/ajae/aat010

M3 - Journal article

VL - 95

SP - 819

EP - 841

JO - American Journal of Agricultural Economics

JF - American Journal of Agricultural Economics

SN - 0002-9092

IS - 4

ER -