The study implies that coffee producing countries will be worse off with the expansion of exports. Hence, we suggest that they pursue new marketing strategies that involve market segmentation, value-adding activities, and strengthening local and global organizations to establish direct market...

With coffee prices at their lowest in a century, producing countries, which are mostly developing countries, are facing the worst crisis in history. The International Coffee Organization (ICO) acknowledges that poverty and unemployment are growing so rapidly that the consequences would be dire...

Much has been written about the challenges facing CARICOM as a result of the liberalization, globalization and integration phenomena. This paper adds value to the conversation by addressing the nexus between and among economic asymmetries, trade liberalization and economic integration, as it...

Immigration issues regained national prominence after the events of September 2001. Much of the specialty crop sector workforce is foreign-born and unauthorized, implying that there may be significant challenges ahead if stringent immigration legislation is passed. This paper assesses the...

A stationary, first-order Markov chain model with selection bias correction for legal status is estimated by maxixmum likelihood methods using the National Agricultural Worker Survey data for 1989-2004 to evaluate the likelihood of workers staying in U.S. agriculture by legal status. Although...

The prospect of immigration reform has renewed farmers’ concerns of serious labor shortages and cost increases, which may urge highly labor-intensive specialty crop farmers to switch to less-labor-intensive technology. The large-scale mechanization of the Florida sugarcane harvest during the...

Immigration reform may significantly impact the specialty crops sector since more than half of the workforce is foreign-born and undocumented. Based on data from the National Agricultural Workers Survey, the trends pertaining to workers' legal status, employment and wage rates in the U.S. and...

Specialty crop agriculture may be affected by immigration reform given that most farm workers are foreign-born and unauthorized for U.S. employment. Controlling for selection on legal status and job type according to skill level, this research examines the wage effects for workers with different...

Using National Agricultural Workers Survey data, we estimate U.S. farm worker wage differentials by legal status. In order to adequately correct sample selection bias, we develop a Heckman-type two-stage method with an ordered probit model in the first stage and a wage equation model in the...