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How the wage-education profile got more convex: evidence from Mexico

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  • Binelli Chiara

    (Department of Economics, University of Southampton, UK; and Rimini Center for Economic Analysis, Rimini, Italy)

Abstract

In the 1990s, in many countries, wages became a more convex function of education: returns to college increased and returns to intermediate education declined. This paper argues that an important cause of this convexification was an exogenous increase in the demand for skilled labour: the increased demand stimulated a supply response, and the supply of intermediate-educated workers further increased the demand for college-educated workers because these two types of labour are complementary. This argument is supported by an empirical equilibrium model of savings and educational choices for Mexico, where the degree of convexification was amplified by loosening credit constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Binelli Chiara, 2015. "How the wage-education profile got more convex: evidence from Mexico," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 509-560, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejmac:v:15:y:2015:i:2:p:509-560:n:6
    DOI: 10.1515/bejm-2014-0030
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Havranek, Tomas & Irsova, Zuzana & Laslopova, Lubica & Zeynalova, Olesia, 2020. "The Elasticity of Substitution between Skilled and Unskilled Labor: A Meta-Analysis," MetaArXiv 7z2uh, Center for Open Science.
    2. Todd Schoellman & Berthold Herrendorf, 2014. "Wages, Human Capital, and the Allocation of Labor across Sectors," 2014 Meeting Papers 364, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    3. Berthold Herrendorf & Todd Schoellman, 2017. "Wages, Human Capital, and Structural Transformation," CESifo Working Paper Series 6426, CESifo.
    4. Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova & Lubica Laslopova & Olesia Zeynalova, 2020. "Skilled and Unskilled Labor Are Less Substitutable than Commonly Thought," Working Papers IES 2020/29, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Sep 2020.
    5. Berthold Herrendorf & Todd Schoellman, 2018. "Wages, Human Capital, and Barriers to Structural Transformation," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 1-23, April.

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