Economics & Finance / Economic Theory / Labor Economics
Deporting 500K Workers Didn't Raise Wages? The Bracero Program Shock in the USA
In 1964, the US kicked out nearly 500,000 Mexican farmworkers to boost American wages and jobs. The result? Wages barely budged, and no one filled those jobs. Instead, farms went high-tech overnight—tomato harvesters, cotton pickers, robotic weeders. The policy backfired spectacularly. This video unpacks the groundbreaking study by Clemens, Lewis, and Postel, revealing why cutting labor supply doesn't guarantee better pay. Watch to see how markets, machines, and crops outsmarted politicians.
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