Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2014, 60(12):553-569 | DOI: 10.17221/78/2014-AGRICECON

The career paths of agricultural workers: What is the impact of temporary contracts?Original Paper

Sonia BELLIT
INRA, Agrosup Dijon, Dijon, France CCMSA, Bagnolet, France

Agriculture, more than any other sector, is a provider of temporary jobs. The main aim of the paper is to analyze the impact of the temporary contract in agriculture on the probability of remaining employed in this sector. There is used a discrete-time competing risks duration model with two sub-samples, consisting of seasonal contracts and fixed-term contracts. The results show that while the probability of a worker finding a job increases with the number of temporary jobs already amassed in his or her career, this probability decreases with the number of interruptions in employment. There is also shown the effect of time dependence on the transition probabilities. Whether the temporary contract is seasonal or not, the risks of exiting towards non-employment are greatest for the shortest contracts, but the prospects for finding a job do improve thereafter. In the specific case of the fixed-term contract, the chances of converting this to a permanent contract are greater at the legal limit. Finally, the most highly qualified workers are those who leave the agricultural sector. Nevertheless, the risks of exiting are relatively low: agricultural jobs require a specific capital which is difficult to transfer to other sectors.

Keywords: competing risks, duration dependence, multilevel, temporary employment, transition

Published: December 31, 2014  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
BELLIT S. The career paths of agricultural workers: What is the impact of temporary contracts? Agric. Econ. - Czech. 2014;60(12):553-569. doi: 10.17221/78/2014-AGRICECON.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Becker G.S. (1964): Human Capital. Columbia University Press, New York..
    2. Becker G. (1976): The Economic Approach to Human Behavior. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
    3. Bellit S., Détang Dessendre C. (2014): Les trajectoires professionnelles des salariés agricoles. (Agricultural employees: between sectoral attachment and precarity.) Economie Rurale, 342: 87-106. Go to original source...
    4. Benjamin C. (1996): Emploi et pluriactivité dans les exploitations agricoles: analyse théorique et application au cas français. (Employment and Multiple Jobs on Farms: Theoretical Analysis and Application to the French Case.) Economica, Paris.
    5. Benjamin C., Kimhi A. (2006): Farm work, off-farm work, and hired farm labour: estimating a discrete-choice model of French farm couples' labour decisions. European Review of Agricultural Economics, 33: 149-171. Go to original source...
    6. Bjornsen H.-M., Biorn E. (2010): Interrelated labor decisions of farm couples: a censored response analysis of off-farm work. Agricultural Economics, 41: 595-610. Go to original source...
    7. Blanc M., Cahuzac E., Elyakime B. (2008): Demand for onfarm permanent hired labour on family holdings. European Review of Agricultural Economics, 35: 493-518. Go to original source...
    8. Bojnec S., Dries L. (2005): Causes of changes in agricultural employment in Slovenia: Evidence from micro-data. Journal of Agricultural Economics, 56: 399-416. Go to original source...
    9. Boockmann B., Hagen T. (2008): Fixed-term contracts as sorting mechanisms: Evidence from job durations in West Germany. Labour Economics, 15: 984-1005. Go to original source...
    10. Cancé R., Fréchou R. (2003): Les contrats courts: source d'instabilités mais aussi tremplin vers l'emploi permanent. (Short-term contracts: source of instability but also the stepping stone to permanent employment.) Premières Informations et Premières Synthèses n°14.1, Dares.
    11. Eckert H., Mora V. (2008): Formes temporelles de l'incertitude et sécurisation des trajectoires dans l'insertion professionnelle des jeunes. (Temporal forms of uncertainty and career path continuity in the employability of young people.) Travail et Emploi, 113: 31-46. Go to original source...
    12. Farber H.S. (1999): Mobility and stability. In: Ashenfelter O., Card D. (eds.): Hanbook of Labor Economics, vol. IIIB: 2439-2483. Go to original source...
    13. Gagliarducci S. (2005): The dynamics of repeated temporary jobs. Labour Economics, 12: 429-448. Go to original source...
    14. Givord P., Blasco S. (2010): Les trajectoires professionnelles en début de vie active: quel impact des contrats temporaires? (Career paths in early working life: what is the impact of temporary contracts) Économie et Statistique, No. 431-432: 73-93. Go to original source...
    15. Givord P., Wilner L. (2009): Fixed-term contracts, incentives and effort. Working paper 2009-15, Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique.
    16. Güell M., Petrongolo B. (2007): How binding are legal limits? Transitions from temporary to permanent work in Spain. Labour Economics, 14: 53-183. Go to original source...
    17. Gullstrand J., Tezic K. (2008): Who leaves after entering the primary sector? Evidence from Swedish micro-level data. European Review of Agricultural Economics, 35: 1-28. Go to original source...
    18. Heckman J.J., Singer B. (1984): A method for minimizing the distributional assumptions in econometric models for duration data. Econometrica, 52: 271-320. Go to original source...
    19. Joutard X., Werquin P. (1992): Les déterminants individuels de la durée de chômage : de l'intérêt de distinguer les emplois stables des emplois précaires. (Individual determinants of the duration of unemployment: of the importance to distinguish permanent employment from precarious jobs.) Économie & prévision, 102: 143-156. Go to original source...
    20. Jovanovic B. (1984): Matching, turnover and unemployment. Journal of political Economy, 92: 108-122. Go to original source...
    21. Spence M. (1973): Job market signaling. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 87: 355-374. Go to original source...
    22. Steele F., Diamond I., Wang D. (1996): The determinants of the duration of contraceptive use in China: A multilevel multinomial discrete hazards modeling approach. Demography, 33: 12-33. Go to original source...
    23. Steele F., Goldstein H. (2004): A general multilevel multistate competing risks model for event history data, with an application to a study of contraceptive use dynamics. Statistical Modelling: An International Journal, 4: 145-159. Go to original source...
    24. Steiner V. (2001): Unemployment persistence in the West German labour market: negative duration dependence or sorting? Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 63: 91-113. Go to original source...
    25. Train K.E. (2003): Discrete choice methods with simulation. University Press, Cambridge. Go to original source...
    26. Van Den Berg G., Heyma A., Zijl M. (2011): Stepping-stones for the unemployed: the effect of temporary jobs on the duration until regular work. IZA discussion paper No.1241, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn.
    27. Van Ours J.C. (2004): The locking-in effect of subsidized jobs. Journal of Comparative Economics, 32: 37-55. Go to original source...
    28. Villaume S. (2011): L'emploi salarié dans le secteur agricole: le poids croissant des contrats saisonniers. (The employment in the agricultural sector: the growing importance of seasonal contracts.) Insee première, 1368, Paris.

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content