The supply of labor in agriculture and food prices: The cases of Japan and Egypt

It is hypothesized in this paper that as the relative cost of food increases, labor supply in agriculture declines and, ceteris paribus , the real wage in agriculture will increase. This hypothesis was tested by using data drawn from Japan for the period 1885 to 1920 and Egypt for the period 1950 to 1974. The results of the empirical analysis confirmed the hypothesis. Thus, recent activities by farmers in labor-abundant less developed nations to mechanize their operations may be partly due to increased labor costs, rising real wage, brought about by the relative scarcity of food.