Greenhouse farming and employment: Evidence from Ecuador

Abstract

The transforming agri-food sector is an important contributor to employment generation in rural areas of lower-income countries. However, little attention has been paid to the question of how technology affects the quality and quantity of employment in the sector. In this paper, we provide the first empirical evidence of how the rise in greenhouse farming changes labor demand (i.e., the number of employees), using large-scale and nationally representative agricultural survey data from Ecuador between 2014 and 2021 and pseudo-panel as well as event-study estimation techniques. Contrary to fears that more technologically advanced production methods displace large shares of the workforce, we find that greenhouse farming is associated with higher labor demand. Specifically, greenhouse farms hire more female workers and workers on permanent contracts.