American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Endogenous Skill Acquisition and Export Manufacturing in Mexico
American Economic Review
vol. 106,
no. 8, August 2016
(pp. 2046–85)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
This paper presents empirical evidence that the growth of export manufacturing in Mexico during a period of major trade reforms (the years 1986 to 2000) altered the distribution of education. I use variation in the timing of factory openings across commuting zones to show that school drop-out increased with local expansions in export-manufacturing industries. The magnitudes I find suggest that for every 25 jobs created, one student dropped out of school at grade 9 rather than continuing through to grade 12. These effects are driven by less-skilled export-manufacturing jobs which raised the opportunity cost of schooling for students at the margin.Citation
Atkin, David. 2016. "Endogenous Skill Acquisition and Export Manufacturing in Mexico." American Economic Review, 106 (8): 2046–85. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20120901Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- F14 Empirical Studies of Trade
- F16 Trade and Labor Market Interactions
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- L60 Industry Studies: Manufacturing: General
- O14 Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
- O19 International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations