IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/joafsc/359769.html

The Exceptional One Percent: U.S. Farmworker and Business Owner

Author

Listed:
  • Pisani, Michael J.
  • Guzman, Joseph M.

Abstract

This paper documents the exceptional confluence between employment as a U.S. farmworker and business owner. Hispanics compose the overall majority (79.7%) of U.S. farmworkers, with two-thirds (66.6%) of all farmworkers identifying as Mexican. Utilizing the National Agricultural Workers Survey conducted annually by the U.S. Department of Labor from 1989 to 2009, we explore the characteristics and determinants of these unique farmworker/business owners. Approximately 1% (or about 10,000) U.S. farmworkers are business owners either in the U.S. or in their native homeland. Both Hispanics (53.0%) and non-Hispanics (47.0%) form this unique subset, although Hispanic farmworkers are underrepresented in this business owner subset given that they make up a relatively high proportion of all U.S. farmworkers. Implications for business growth, entrepreneurship, and economic development abound; even in the most trying of occupations entrepreneurial outcomes may emerge. Two case studies outline possible pathways to business formation for agricultural workers. See the press release for this article.

Suggested Citation

  • Pisani, Michael J. & Guzman, Joseph M., 2016. "The Exceptional One Percent: U.S. Farmworker and Business Owner," Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Center for Transformative Action, Cornell University, vol. 6(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:joafsc:359769
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/359769/files/438.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rachel S. Shinnar & Cheri A. Young, 2008. "Hispanic Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area: Motivations for Entry into and Outcomes of Self‐Employment," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 242-262, April.
    2. Borjas, George J. (ed.), 2007. "Mexican Immigration to the United States," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226066325, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Michael Gerfin & Boris Kaiser, 2010. "The Effects of Immigration on Wages: An Application of the Structural Skill-Cell Approach," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 146(4), pages 709-739, December.
    2. Andri Chassamboulli & Theodore Palivos, 2014. "A Search‐Equilibrium Approach To The Effects Of Immigration On Labor Market Outcomes," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 55(1), pages 111-129, February.
    3. Isabelle Chort & Maëlys Rupelle, 2016. "Determinants of Mexico-U.S. Outward and Return Migration Flows: A State-Level Panel Data Analysis," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(5), pages 1453-1476, October.
    4. Lucht, Michael & Haas, Anette, 2015. "The productivity effect of migrants : wage cost advantages and heterogeneous firms," IAB-Discussion Paper 201505, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    5. Michael Lucht & Anette Haas, 2012. "Heterogeneous Firms and Substitution by Tasks: the Productivity Effect of Migrants," ERSA conference papers ersa12p894, European Regional Science Association.
    6. Hausmann, Ricardo & Nedelkoska, Ljubica, 2018. "Welcome home in a crisis: Effects of return migration on the non-migrants' wages and employment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 101-132.
    7. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Viola von Berlepsch, 2012. "When migrants rule: the legacy of mass migration on economic development in the US," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1216, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2012.
    8. Paik, SongYi, 2023. "Agricultural Minimum Wage and US Agricultural Employment," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335822, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Rafal Kierzenkowski & Isabell Koske, 2012. "Less Income Inequality and More Growth – Are they Compatible? Part 8. The Drivers of Labour Income Inequality – A Literature Review," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 931, OECD Publishing.
    10. Lewis, Ethan & Peri, Giovanni, 2015. "Immigration and the Economy of Cities and Regions," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 625-685, Elsevier.
    11. Francesco D’Amuri & Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano & Giovanni Peri, 2021. "The labor market impact of immigration in Western Germany in the 1990s," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 8, pages 223-243, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    12. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Sara de la Rica, 2008. "Complements or Substitutes? Immigrant and Native Task Specialization in Spain," Working Papers 2008-35, FEDEA.
    13. Ullmann, S. Heidi & Goldman, Noreen & Massey, Douglas S., 2011. "Healthier before they migrate, less healthy when they return? The health of returned migrants in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 421-428, August.
    14. Jean-François Maystadt & Valerie Mueller & Ashwini Sebastian, 2016. "Environmental Migration and Labor Markets in Nepal," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(2), pages 417-452.
    15. Ortega, Javier & Verdugo, Gregory, 2014. "The impact of immigration on the French labor market: Why so different?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 14-27.
    16. Licia Ferranna & Margherita Gerolimetto & Stefano Magrini, 2016. "The effect of immigration on convergence dynamics in the US," Working Papers 2016:27, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    17. Amelie F. Constant, 2020. "Time-Space Dynamics of Return and Circular Migration: Theories and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 8053, CESifo.
    18. Peter Simmons & Yuanyuan Xie, 2013. "Three musketeers: A dynamic model of capital inflow (FDI), the real wage rate and the net migration flow with empirical application," Discussion Papers 13/28, Department of Economics, University of York.
    19. Adsera, Alicia & Ferrer, Ana, 2014. "Immigrants and Demography: Marriage, Divorce, and Fertility," IZA Discussion Papers 7982, IZA Network @ LISER.
    20. Francine Blau, 2015. "Immigrants and gender roles: assimilation vs. culture," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-21, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    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:joafsc:359769. 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: .

    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.