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<p>This paper studies how Italian farms adjust when migrant workers become available in a sector facing persistent labor shortages. Using an unbalanced panel of 20,589 farms from the Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) for 2012–2021 linked to province-level measures of immigrant presence, we examine whether migrant employment primarily reshapes production structure and land allocation or instead affects factor prices and technology choices. To address endogenous migrant location and farm hiring, we instrument local migrant availability with a shift-share measure based on 1991 settlement patterns interacted with national inflows, and exploit within-farm variation over time. We find that farms employing migrants experience a sizable decline in the share of native workers, but no systematic reduction in native employment levels. Migrant employment raises the value of production in Northern and Southern Italy (including Islands) and induces marked reallocation across crop groups and land use, with heterogeneous patterns across macro-areas. By contrast, we do not detect robust effects on net hourly wages or mechanization proxies. Quality-related responses, measured by certifications, are mixed and region-specific. Overall, the evidence points to adjustment mainly through output composition and farm organization rather than through factor-price changes.</p>

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Cultivating diversity: Migrant workforce and the Italian agricultural sector

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月3日

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  • Lisa Capretti,
  • Furio Camillo Rosati

摘要

This paper studies how Italian farms adjust when migrant workers become available in a sector facing persistent labor shortages. Using an unbalanced panel of 20,589 farms from the Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) for 2012–2021 linked to province-level measures of immigrant presence, we examine whether migrant employment primarily reshapes production structure and land allocation or instead affects factor prices and technology choices. To address endogenous migrant location and farm hiring, we instrument local migrant availability with a shift-share measure based on 1991 settlement patterns interacted with national inflows, and exploit within-farm variation over time. We find that farms employing migrants experience a sizable decline in the share of native workers, but no systematic reduction in native employment levels. Migrant employment raises the value of production in Northern and Southern Italy (including Islands) and induces marked reallocation across crop groups and land use, with heterogeneous patterns across macro-areas. By contrast, we do not detect robust effects on net hourly wages or mechanization proxies. Quality-related responses, measured by certifications, are mixed and region-specific. Overall, the evidence points to adjustment mainly through output composition and farm organization rather than through factor-price changes.