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Is Mexico A Lumpy Country?

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Author Info
Andrew B. Bernard
Raymond Robertson
Peter K. Schott

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Abstract

Mexico's experience before and after trade liberalization presents a challenge to neoclassical trade theory. Though labor abundant, it nevertheless exported skill-intensive goods and protected labor-intensive sectors prior to liberalization. Post-liberalization, the relative wage of skilled workers rose. Courant and Deardorff (1992) have shown theoretically that an extremely uneven distribution of factors within a country can induce behavior at odds with overall comparative advantage. We demonstrate the importance of this insight for developing countries. We show that Mexican regions exhibit substantial variation in skill abundance, offer significantly different relative factor rewards, and produce disjoint sets of industries. This heterogeneity helps to both undermine Mexico's aggregate labor abundance and motivate behavior that is more consistent with relative skill abundance.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10898.

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Date of creation: Nov 2004
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10898

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F11 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Neoclassical Models of Trade
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Leamer, Edward E, 1987. "Paths of Development in the Three-Factor, n-Good General Equilibrium Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(5), pages 961-99, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Gordon H. Hanson, 2003. "What Has Happened to Wages in Mexico since NAFTA?," NBER Working Papers 9563, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Revenga, Ana, 1997. "Employment and Wage Effects of Trade Liberalization: The Case of Mexican Manufacturing," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(3), pages S20-43, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Hanson, Gordon H, 1997. "Increasing Returns, Trade and the Regional Structure of Wages," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(440), pages 113-33, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Verhoogen, Eric A., 2007. "Trade, Quality Upgrading and Wage Inequality in the Mexican Manufacturing Sector," CEPR Discussion Papers 6385, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Roberto Alvarez & Raymond Robertson, 2004. "Exposure to foreign markets and plant-level innovation: evidence from Chile and Mexico," Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 57-87, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Peter K. Schott, 2003. "One Size Fits All? Heckscher-Ohlin Specialization in Global Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 686-708, June. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Repetto, A. & Ventura, J., 1997. "The Leontief-Trefler Hypothesis and Factor Price Insensitivity," Working papers 97-13, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
  9. Wood, Adrian, 1997. "Openness and Wage Inequality in Developing Countries: The Latin American Challenge to East Asian Conventional Wisdom," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 33-57, January.
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  11. Debaere, Peter, 2004. "Does lumpiness matter in an open economy?: Studying international economics with regional data," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 485-501, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Cragg, Michael Ian & Epelbaum, Mario, 1996. "Why has wage dispersion grown in Mexico? Is it the incidence of reforms or the growing demand for skills?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 99-116, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Donald R. Davis & David E. Weinstein, 2001. "An Account of Global Factor Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1423-1453, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Robertson, Raymond, 2004. "Relative prices and wage inequality: evidence from Mexico," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 387-409, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Courant, Paul N & Deardorff, Alan V, 1992. "International Trade with Lumpy Countries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(1), pages 198-210, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Esquivel, Gerardo & Rodriguez-Lopez, Jose Antonio, 2003. "Technology, trade, and wage inequality in Mexico before and after NAFTA," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 543-565, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Feenstra, Robert C. & Hanson, Gordon H., 1997. "Foreign direct investment and relative wages: Evidence from Mexico's maquiladoras," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-4), pages 371-393, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  18. Lucinda Vargas, 1999. "The binational importance of the maquiladora industry," The Southwest Economy, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, issue Nov, pages 1-5. [Downloadable!]
  19. Raymond Robertson, 2000. "Trade Liberalisation and Wage Inequality: Lessons from the Mexican Experience," The World Economy, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 23(6), pages 827-849, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Deardorff, Alan V., 1994. "The possibility of factor price equalization, revisited," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-2), pages 167-175, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Bernard, Andrew & Redding, Stephen J & Schott, Peter, 2005. "Factor Price Equality and the Economies of the United States," CEPR Discussion Papers 5111, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  22. Topel, Robert H, 1986. "Local Labor Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages S111-43, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Waldkirch, Andreas, 2008. "The Effects of Foreign Direct Investment in Mexico since NAFTA," MPRA Paper 7975, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  2. Pol Antràs & Luis Garicano & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2005. "Offshoring in a Knowledge Economy," NBER Working Papers 11094, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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