Work and Earnings in Agrifood Value Chains Around the World
Paper Session
Monday, Jan. 5, 2026 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (EST)
- Chair: Chris Barrett, Cornell University
Understanding Agrifood Value Chain Labor Dynamics
Abstract
The structural transformation of agrifood value chains (AVCs) arises through a combination of technological and institutional changes and growth and shifts in consumer demand that arise as incomes grow and populations urbanize. Over the course of AVC structural transformation, old jobs disappear, new ones get created, and relative compensation adjusts. Yet relatively little is understood about this process, especially over extended periods or at global scale. This paper studies patterns of change in AVC employment and labor compensation. We use a new, global data set on labor value addition, employment, and average worker compensation within AVCs by country, year, and final consumer sub-market – domestic retail (i.e., food at home), domestic food service (i.e., food away from home), and international export (i.e., retail plus food service across all foreign markets) – for each of six distinct AVC industries (primary production, food manufacturing, transportation, wholesale, retail, food service), 1993-2021. We decompose observed changes in employment and average annual worker compensation within countries’ AVCs into several component parts: changes in labor intensity/productivity within a given AVC industry, changes in the direct input requirements of the overall economy (i.e., in the technical coefficients that map intersectoral monetary flows to sector-specific outputs), changes in the composition of finalconsumer demand (e.g., food at home versus food away from home, export versus domestic markets), and changes in total final consumer expenditures. The former two phenomena reflect technological and institutional change that affects labor use within the AVC, the latter two reflect the shifting composition and absolute level of consumer food demand. One might reasonably expect different factors to be more or less important at different stages of national income growth, in different regions, and for different markets or industries. We supplement global scale analysis with case studies of several countries from different regions and incomes.
Measuring Agrifood Systems: New Indicators and Global Estimates”
Abstract
Transformation of the agrifood system is a cornerstone of many governments’ national development plans. This reflects the importance of agrifood systems for the livelihoods and wellbeing of poor populations as well as the continued strong association of agricultural transformation with longer-term economic development and structural change. Agrifood transformation is also key to healthier diets and more sustainable production systems. However, adopting an agrifood system perspective is not trivial – it requires looking “beyond agriculture” when prioritizing policies and tracking outcomes by also considering upstream and downstream agrifood-related activities, such as agro-processing and food distribution. Measuring transformation therefore requires economywide data and innovative metrics. This study introduces two such metrics – AgGDP+, which captures the total value-added across the on- and off-farm sectors of the agrifood system, and AgEMP+, which reflects the employment generated across its various components. It further explains how consistent estimates of AgGDP+ and AgEMP+ were produced for 217 countries over the period 2000–2021 and demonstrates how this Agri-Food System Dashboard – a publicly available resource – can be used to monitor transformation, prioritize investments, and better understandDiscussant(s)
Douglas Gollin
,
Tufts University
JEL Classifications
- J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor
- O1 - Economic Development