Alejandro Gutierrez-Li

Bio

Alejandro Gutierrez-Li is an Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. He is in charge of a new research and extension program related to agricultural labor in the US. Farmers all across the country have been experiencing problems getting enough workers in the fields, which is putting their livelihoods, the economies of rural communities, and the food security of the nation at risk. Dr. Gutierrez-Li’s work focuses on the study of the factors behind the decline in the supply of farmworkers, immigration, mechanization efforts, the H-2A visa program, and ways to recruit, train and retain agricultural workers. As a labor economist, he is also interested in entrepreneurship, workforce trends, and the outcomes of Hispanics in the US. He regularly interacts with stakeholders and reporters, and has been quoted by outlets like the Wall Street Journal, NBC News, and the Triangle Business Journal. Dr. Gutierrez-Li has lived and worked in different parts of Latin America and the United States, and is fluent in both English and Spanish.

Publications

• Business Ownership and Emigration: An Empirical Analysis of the Mexico-US Case , Economía (2025)
• The Unseen Workforce: How Immigration Enforcement Could Shake the U.S. Economy , Choices (2025)
• Automatic Milking Systems: Labor-Savings Route or Costly Gamble for Dairy Farmers? , Choices (2024)
• Home Country Work Experience and Immigrant Self-Employment in the United States , INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW (2024)
• H‐2A workers' preferences for job attributes: Evidence from an experiment , Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (2024)
• The Self-Employment Effects of Secure Communities in the United States , AEA PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS (2023)
• Self-Employment and Migration: Evidence from Mexico , AEA Papers and Proceedings (2022)
• Determinantes y diferencias en la Moral Fiscal en Centroamérica. Un análisis desde el Latinobarómetro 2005 , Revista de Ciencias Económicas (2011)