Immigration enforcement policies, such as E-Verify, have a negative effect on the US supply of farm labor. A growing literature finds that agricultural producers in the United States are facing a shrinking labor supply, while only a few studies examine how agricultural producers are adjusting to having less labor. This study examines how a shrinking labor force affects agricultural production decisions, specifically in terms of labor-intensive and capital-intensive crops. With less labor it is more challenging for agricultural producers to produce labor-intensive crops when there is no available technology to substitute for labor. We use E-Verify enforcement laws as a quasi-natural negative labor shock and data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey to examine this issue. We find a decline in the production of labor-intensive crops and an increase in the production of capital-intensive crops in the states that have enforced “strong” E-Verify laws. Based on our results, the opposite is true for “weak” E-Verify states. [EconLit Citations: Q12, Q18, J6, K37].

中文翻译：

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E-Verify 对劳动密集型和资本密集型作物份额的影响：来自农场级数据的证据

移民执法政策，例如 E-Verify，对美国的农业劳动力供应产生负面影响。越来越多的文献发现，美国的农业生产者正面临劳动力供应减少的问题，而只有少数研究调查了农业生产者如何适应劳动力减少。本研究探讨劳动力萎缩如何影响农业生产决策，特别是在劳动密集型和资本密集型作物方面。由于劳动力较少，在没有可用技术替代劳动力的情况下，农业生产者生产劳动密集型作物更具挑战性。我们使用 E-Verify 执法法律作为准自然的负面劳动力冲击和来自农业资源管理调查的数据来研究这个问题。我们发现，在实施“强有力的”电子验证法律的州，劳动密集型作物的产量下降，资本密集型作物的产量增加。根据我们的结果，“弱”电子验证状态正好相反。[EconLit 引文：Q12、Q18、J6、K37]。