Induced Innovations and Foreign Workers in U.S. Agriculture

A cost function approach of induced innovation is used to measure the biases in U.S. agricultural technology between 1948-1994. The results show significant labor-saving, capital-using technical change. Focusing on the impact of migration policy on labor-saving technology, a simulaton of different rates of labor-saving technical change is conducted. The simulation shows decreases in elasticity of labor demand and demand quantity, and an increase in wage rate as technology becomes more labor-saving.