| This paper investigates the effect of technological change on the demand for, and supply of, hired farm workers in the United States for the period 1950 to 1992. Particular attention is given to the proxy for technological change. We have used total expenditures, both by public and private sectors, for research and development in the field of agriculture. We find that technology has a negative impact on the hired labor demand after the second and third year of initial investment. Our results show that technology is labor saving. The demand and supply elasticities were found to differ from other studies. We also derive elasticities of adjustment and draw some policy conclusions. The paper also presents a dynamic-in-period simulation of the estimated model. |
