Jeff Luckstead

Contributions of Immigrant Farmworkers to California Vegetable Production

A major concern with immigrants coming into the United States is that they adversely affect domestic workers through job competition and wage depression. We study the displacement and wage reduction effects of immigrants in California vegetable production, which is labor intensive, and 95% of the farmworkers in California are immigrants. Our findings show that this concern is not valid in vegetable production because the addition of one new immigrant displaces only 0.0123 domestic workers, and wage reduction is inconsequential. But one immigrant worker increases the vegetable production by

The Effects of North American Free Trade Agreement and United States Farm Policies on Illegal Immigration and Agricultural Trade

23,457 and augments the productivity of skilled workers, material inputs, and capital by

Impacts of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership on Processed Food Trade under Monopolistic Competition and Firm Heterogeneity

11,729.

US-Mexico tomato dispute

We analyze the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and United States farm subsidies on U.S.-Mexican illegal immigration and agricultural trade. The theoretical analysis develops an integrated trade-migration model and shows that NAFTA and U.S. subsidies exacerbate the illegal labor flow and increase U.S. exports. The theoretical analysis is empirically implemented by simultaneous estimation and simulation analysis. The analysis shows that NAFTA increased the number of undocumented workers to U.S. agriculture and U.S. farm exports to Mexico by an average of 1573 and

US and Chinese Strategic Trade Policies and Product Differentiation in the ASEAN Apple Market

6.82 billion, respectively. U.S. farm subsidy reduction decreases unauthorized entry marginally and U.S. farm exports by an average of

China’s catch-up to the US economy: decomposing TFP through investment-specific technology and human capital

3.2 billion.

Market effects of farmer field schools in Sub-Saharan Africa: The case for cocoa

Food processing firms vary in size, exhibit productivity differences, produce highly differentiated products, and engage in monopolistic competition. As the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiation is gaining momentum and trade in processed food is becoming more important, it is worth analyzing the impact of this potential trade liberalization on the U.S. and E.U. processed food markets. This study develops a three-region (United States, European Union, and Rest of the World) monopolistic competition trade model with heterogeneous firms to analyze the effects of U.S.–E.U. bilateral tariff elimination and nontariff barrier harmonization on prices, domestic production, bilateral trade, productivity, measure of operating firms, and welfare in the processed food sector. The results show that this trade liberalization expands cross-hauling, with U.S. exports to the European Union increasing by about 95% and E.U. exports to the United States rising by about 87%. This increase in cross-hauling displaces exports from the Rest of the World to the United States and the European Union by approximately 3% and 8%, respectively. U.S. and E.U. total processed food production increases by about 4% and 0.4%, respectively. Because of lower prices and more consumption, net welfare expands in all three regions.

Coupled vs. decoupled subsidies with heterogeneous firms in general equilibrium

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical background of the tomato dispute, review the USA trade law and its effect on the tomato trade, discuss the role of the North American Free Trade Agreement and other supply and demand factors on increased tomato imports from Mexico and present a conceptual analysis of the effects of a Suspension Agreement (a form of Voluntary Export Restraint) on the USA and Mexico. In 1996, the USA and Mexico signed the Suspension Agreement which sets a guaranteed minimum price for Mexican tomato imports. Design/methodology/approach – Conceptual analysis graphically illustrates how the Suspension Agreement affects the tomato trade for the USA and Mexico and shows the benefits and losses of consumers and producers in these two countries. Findings – There is no consensus regarding whether Mexico dumps tomatoes onto the US market. However, US trade law favors domestic producers, leading to the signing of the Suspension Agreement. It is shown here that this agreem...

Is pork trade good for China’s greenhouse gas emissions?

ABSTRACT We investigate oligopolistic competition between US and Chinese apple exporters in the ASEAN market using strategic trade theory and the NEIO literature. We also analyze competition in the US and Chinese domestic markets. The US supplies higher quality apples to ASEAN than China, resulting in product differentiation. The results show that US exporters had a higher markup than Chinese exporters through the 1990s; however, as the share of Chinese apples expanded, the US markup declined and the Chinese markup increased dramatically. Competitive pricing prevails both in the US and Chinese domestic markets.

US immigration policies and dynamics of cross-border workforce in agriculture

We implement a neoclassical growth model that incorporates investment-specific technology (IST) modifying capital investment in the law of motion of capital and bifurcates productivity into human capital and total factor productivity (TFP) in the production function. We focus on the role of changes in the quality-adjusted price of investment goods on China’s growth by comparing the effects of IST and human capital on the decomposition of US and Chinese productivity. The results show that both human capital and IST play an important role in the decomposition of US TFP. For China, human capital accounts for an increasingly higher portion of Chinese TFP for the period 1952–2009; however, IST contributes to the explanation of TFP only after the 1979 reforms. The analysis is extended by considering the impact of IST in the consumer’s investment decision and by projecting both countries’ GDP while modelling unbalanced Chinese growth using catch-up. Our model predicts that the Chinese economy will surpass the US economy in 2024.