Liberalizing Immigration Policies for the UK Agricultural Sector in the Post-Brexit Era

Angioloni, Simone; Berrittella, Maria; Wu, Ziping; Aguiar, Angel H.

doi:2022.37.1.158

The Journal of Economic Integration 2022 March;37(1) :158-178.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.158

Liberalizing Immigration Policies for the UK Agricultural Sector in the Post-Brexit Era

Simone Angioloni, ¹ Maria Berrittella, ² Ziping Wu, ¹ Angel H. Aguiar, ³

¹Agri-Food Biosciences Institute, UK
²Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy
³Purdue University, USA

Corresponding Author: Maria Berrittella ,Email: maria.berrittella@unipa.it

ABSTRACT

We investigate the effects of immigration policies on the UK agricultural sector under the new post-Brexit deal through a computable general equilibrium framework. We consider bilateral flows of migrants and frictions as part of capital and labor mobility to compare the point-based immigration system to open immigration policies in terms of their impacts on agriculture. We also integrate the GTAP-GMig2 immigration model with the GTAP-AGR agriculture model. Our findings show that liberal immigration policies have positive effects on production, farmers’ income, and overall welfare. The benefits increase if these policies are combined with reduced bureaucracy and lower behind-the-border costs in trade relationships.

JEL Classification

C68: Computable General Equilibrium Models
E24: Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital
F16: Trade and Labor Market Interactions
J61: Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
Q11: Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis; Prices

Keywords: agriculture; Brexit; computable general equilibrium; immigration; labor market