IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/rdevec/v12y2008i2p276-290.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Regional Analysis of the Impact of Trade and Foreign Direct Investment on Wages in Mexico, 1984–2000

Author

Listed:
  • Jim Airola

Abstract

The conventional Heckscher–Ohlin model of trade predicts an equalizing effect of trade on wages in developing countries abundant in less‐skilled labor. Contrary to these predictions, skill premiums and skill demand increased in Mexico following trade liberalization. “New” trade theories have offered several channels through which trade can increase relative wages and demand for skilled workers. One such channel is foreign direct investment and outsourcing. Using the Mexican Household Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH) covering 1984–2000, the author examines the relationship between the demand for skill and maquiladora employment across regions and states. In contrast to previous studies based on manufacturing data for the 1980s, little evidence is found that growth in maquiladora employment is positively related to the increase in relative wages or wage‐bill share of more educated workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Jim Airola, 2008. "A Regional Analysis of the Impact of Trade and Foreign Direct Investment on Wages in Mexico, 1984–2000," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 276-290, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:12:y:2008:i:2:p:276-290
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9361.2008.00428.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9361.2008.00428.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9361.2008.00428.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robbins, Donald J., 1996. "Hos Hits Facts: Facts Win Evidence On Trade And Wages In The Developing World," Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) Papers 294374, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.
    2. Romain Wacziarg & Karen Horn Welch, 2008. "Trade Liberalization and Growth: New Evidence," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(2), pages 187-231, June.
    3. Jim Airola & Chinhui Juhn, 2008. "Wage Inequality in Post-Reform Mexico," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 17(1), pages 110-134, March.
    4. Donald J. Robbins, 1996. "Evidence on Trade and Wages in the Developing World," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 119, OECD Publishing.
    5. Davis, Donald, 1996. "Trade Liberalization And Income Distribution," Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) Papers 294371, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.
    6. Meng,Xin, 2009. "Labour Market Reform in China," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521121118, September.
    7. Donald R. Davis, 1996. "Trade Liberalization and Income Distribution," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1769, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    8. Ms. Prachi Mishra & Mr. Utsav Kumar, 2005. "Trade Liberalization and Wage Inequality: Evidence From India," IMF Working Papers 2005/020, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Edward E. Leamer, 1996. "In Search of Stolper-Samuelson Effects on U.S. Wages," NBER Working Papers 5427, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rodriguez Castelan, Carlos & Vazquez, Emmanuel & Winkler, Hernan, 2020. "Tracing the Local Impacts of Exports on Poverty and Inequality in Mexico," IZA Discussion Papers 13610, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. J. Eduardo Ibarra‐Olivo & Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose, 2022. "FDI and the growing wage gap in Mexican municipalities," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(6), pages 1411-1439, December.
    3. Garduno-Rivera, Rafael & Baylis, Katherine R., 2012. "Effect of Tariff Liberalization on Mexico’s Income Distribution in the presence of Migration," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124740, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Carlos Rodríguez-Castelán & Emmanuel Vazquez & Hernán Winkler, 2020. "Tracing the Local Impacts of Exports on Poverty and Inequality: The Case of Mexico," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0269, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arslan Razmi, 2009. "Can the HOSS framework help shed light on the simultaneous growth of inequality and informalization in developing countries?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 145(2), pages 361-372, July.
    2. Paolo Epifani & Gino Gancia, 2008. "The Skill Bias of World Trade," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(530), pages 927-960, July.
    3. Julien Gourdon, 2011. "Wage inequality in developing countries: South–South trade matters," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 58(4), pages 359-383, December.
    4. Joy Mazumdar & Myriam Quispe-Agnoli, 2004. "Can capital-skill complementarity explain the rising skill premium in developing countries? evidence from Peru," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2004-11, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    5. Meschi, Elena & Vivarelli, Marco, 2007. "Globalization and Income Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 2958, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Ilina Srour & Erol Taymaz & Marco Vivarelli, 2014. "Globalization, Technology and Skills: Evidence from Turkish Longitudinal Microdata," ERC Working Papers 1405, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised Jun 2014.
    7. Mr. Alberto Behar, 2013. "The Endogenous Skill Bias of Technical Change and Inequality in Developing Countries," IMF Working Papers 2013/050, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Guerriero, Marta & Sen, Kunal, 2012. "What Determines the Share of Labour in National Income? A Cross-Country Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 6643, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Eddy LEE & Marco VIVARELLI, 2006. "The social impact of globalization in the developing countries," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 145(3), pages 167-184, September.
    10. Joy Mazumdar & Myriam Quispe-Agnoli, 2002. "Trade and the skill premium in developing countries: the role of intermediate goods and some evidence from Peru," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2002-11, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    11. Ilina Srour & Marco Vivarelli & Erol Taymaz, 2013. "Technological Change and Skill-based Employment Disparities: Evidence from Turkey," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali dises1393, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    12. Xu, Bin, 2003. "Trade liberalization, wage inequality, and endogenously determined nontraded goods," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 417-431, August.
    13. Meschi, Elena & Vivarelli, Marco, 2009. "Trade and Income Inequality in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 287-302, February.
    14. Joy Mazumdar & Myriam Quispe-Agnoli, 2019. "Can Capital-Skill Complementarity Explain the Rising Skill Premium in Developing Countries? Evidence from Peru in the 1990s," Revista Economía, Fondo Editorial - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, vol. 42(83), pages 75-94.
    15. Srour, Ilina & Taymaz, Erol & Vivarelli, Marco, 2013. "Skill-Biased Technological Change and Skill-Enhancing Trade in Turkey: Evidence from Longitudinal Microdata," IZA Discussion Papers 7320, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Sergei Soares & Luciana M. Santos Servo & Jorge Saba Arbache, 2001. "O que (não) Sabemos sobre a Relação entre Abertura Comercial e Mercado de Trabalho no Brasil," Anais do XXIX Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 29th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 048, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    17. Robert C. Feenstra, 1998. "Integration of Trade and Disintegration of Production in the Global Economy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 31-50, Fall.
    18. Hoekman & Bernard & Winters, L. Alan, 2005. "Trade and employment : stylized facts and research findings," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3676, The World Bank.
    19. Rotunno, Lorenzo & Wood, Adrian, 2020. "Wage inequality and skill supplies in a globalised world," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 529-547.
    20. Chamarbagwala, Rubiana, 2006. "Economic Liberalization and Wage Inequality in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 1997-2015, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:12:y:2008:i:2:p:276-290. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1363-6669 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.