Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-01T02:12:06.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is There a Link between the Changing Skills of Labor Used in U.S. Processed Food Trade and Rural Employment?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2015

Gerald Schluter  and
Chinkook Lee
Gerald Schluter
Affiliation:
Food and Rural Economy Division, Economic Research Service, USDA, Washington, DC
Chinkook Lee
Affiliation:
Soka University of America, Aliso Jiejo, CA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Between the 1970s and the 1990s, processed food exports switched from using more skilled labor per unit of output than imports to the opposite. Processed food trade also expanded during this period. More meat and poultry products in processed food trade could explain this switch in skill intensity. Growing meat trade paralleled an urban-to-rural shift in meat processing. Although this could have been a win-win situation for rural areas, many of the jobs related to expanded meat trade benefited commuter and migrant workers because late-1990s jobs slaughtering livestock and processing meat did not appeal to domestic rural workers.

Keywords

consolidation in the meat industryfactor content of tradeinput-output analysisinternational meat tradeprocessed food traderural developmentrural labor demandskill intensityC67D24F14F16J61L66O18Q17R15
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , December 2004 , pp. 691 - 703
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adhikaril, B.B., Harsh, S.B., and Cheney, L.M.. “Factors Affecting Regional Shifts of U.S. Pork Production.” Selected Paper, American Agricultural Economics Association, Montreal, Canada, July 27-30, 2003.Google Scholar
Antweiler, W., and Trefler, D.. “Increasing Returns and All That: A View from Trade.” American Economic Review 92(March 2002):93–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borjas, G.J., Freeman, R.B., and Katz, L.F.. “Searching for the Effect of Immigration on the Labor Market.” American Economic Review 86(May 1996):246–51.Google Scholar
Brauer, D., and Hickok, S.. “Explaining the Growing Inequality in Wages across Skill Levels.” Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Economic Policy Review 1(1995):61–75.Google Scholar
Broadway, M.J. “Hogtowns and Rural Development.” Rural Development Perspectives 9(Spring 1994):40–6.Google Scholar
Conway, P.J. “The Case of the Missing Trade and Other Mysteries—Comment.” American Economic Review 92(March 2002):394–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, D.R., and Weinstein, D.. “An Account of Global Factor Trade.” American Economic Review 91(2001):1423–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doeksen, G. “Economic and Social Impacts of a Large Agricultural Processing Plant in a Rural County.” 39th Annual Meeting, Western Regional Science Association, Hawaii, 2000.Google Scholar
Drabenstott, M., Henry, M., and Mitchell, K.. “Where Have All the Packing Plants Gone? The New Meat Geography in Rural America.” Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Economic Review 84(3rd quarter, 1999):65–82.Google Scholar
Dyck, J., and Nelson, K.. “World Meat Trade Shaped by Regional Preference and Reduced Barriers.” Economic Research Service, USDA, Agricultural Outlook (March 2000):7–9.Google Scholar
Eatwell, J., Milgate, M., and Newman, P., eds. The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. New York: Stockton Press, 1987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García-Vega, J., and Williams, G.W.. “The Mexican Livestock, Meat, and Feed Industries: Economic Structure and Government Policy.” TAMRC International Market Research Report No. IM-1-96, Texas A&M University, July 1996.Google Scholar
Ghelfi, L. “Most Value-added Manufacturing Increased its Attachment to Rural Areas During 1989-94.” Rural Conditions and Trends 8(Summer 1998):12–18.Google Scholar
Leamer, E. “Wage Inequality from International Competition and Technological Change: Theory and Country Experience.” American Economic Review 86(May, 1996):309–14.Google Scholar
Lee, C, and Schluter, G.. “The Effect of Trade, Technology, and Labor Productivity on the Demand for Skilled vs Unskilled Workers.” Economic Systems Research 11,1(1999):49–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leontief, W. “Domestic Production and Foreign Trade: The American Capital Position Re-Examined.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 97(1953):332–49.Google Scholar
MacDonald, J.M., and Ollinger, M.E.. “Scale Economies and Consolidation in Hog Slaughter.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 82,2(2000):334–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, J.M., Ollinger, M.E., Nelson, K.E., and Handy, C.R.. “Consolidation in U.S. Meatpacking.” Agricultural Economic Report Number 785, USDA/Economic Research Service, Washington, DC, February 2000.Google Scholar
McGranahan, D.A. “Can Manufacturing Reverse Rural Great Plains Depopulation?” Rural Development Perspectives 13,1(1998):35–45.Google Scholar
Ollinger, M., MacDonald, J., and Madison, M.. “Structural Change in U.S. Chicken and Turkey Slaughter.” Agricultural Economic Report No. 787. USDA/Economic Research Service, Washington, DC, September 2000.Google Scholar
Richardson, D.J. “Income Inequality and Trade: How to Think, What to Conclude.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 9(Summer 1995):33–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stull, D.D., Broadway, M.J., and Griffith, D.. Any Way You Cut It: Meat Processing and Small Town America. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1995.Google Scholar
Syrquin, M., and Urato, S.. “Sources of Change in Factor Intensity of Trade.” Journal of Development Economics 24(1986):225–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trefler, D. “The Case of the Missing Trade and Other Mysteries.” American Economic Review 85(December 1995):1029–46.Google Scholar
Trefler, D. “The Case of the Missing Trade and Other Mysteries—Reply.” American Economic Review 92(March 2002):405–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, County Business Patterns. Internet site: http://www.census.gov/mp/www/Tempcat/CBP.html (Accessed August 26, 2004).Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. The Detailed Input-Output Structure of the U.S. Economy, 1972. Washington, DC, 1979.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. Benchmark Input-Output Accounts for the U.S. Economy, 1992. Washington, DC, 1998.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (USDL, BLS). Occupational Employment Statistics. Washington, DC, 1996.Google Scholar
Wood, A. “How Trade Hurt Unskilled Workers.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 9(Summer 1995):57–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, A.North-South Trade, Employment and Inequality: Changing Fortunes in a Skill-Driven World. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.Google Scholar