Labour Demand and Agroindustrial Development: The Evidence from Mexico

In: The journal of development studies: JDS, Band 30, Heft 1, S. 168-189

Abstract

Contrary to assertions by Mexican policymakers, it is demonstrated that agroindustrialization has had a negative employment-generating effect in agriculture in the El Bajio region. Survey data obtained 1982/83 on 266 food-processing farms indicate that the impact of widespread crop substitution & the wholesale transfer of technology promoted by transnational processing plants have both reduced the total labor employed & increased the instability of employment through heightened seasonality of labor demand. A decomposition analysis assesses the role played by various determinants of labor demand in the alteration of regional agricultural employment resulting from agroindustrialization. 10 Tables, 1 Figure, 15 References. Adapted from the source document.