Tracking wage inequality trends with prices and different trade models: evidence from Mexico

Timothy Halliday, Daniel Lederman and Raymond Robertson

Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), 2018, vol. 154, issue 1, No 3, 47-73

Abstract: Abstract Mexican wage inequality rose following Mexico’s accession to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization in 1986. Since the mid-1990s, however, wage inequality has been falling. Since most trade models suggest that output prices can affect factor prices, this paper explores the relationship between output prices and wage inequality. A Salter–Swan trade model with firm heterogeneity driven by variations in the relative price of tradable relative to non-tradable goods can explain the decline in wage inequality. The paper compares this model’s predictions with Mexican inequality statistics using data on output prices, census data, and quarterly household survey data. In spite of the model’s simplicity, the model’s predictions match Mexican variables reasonably well during the years when wage inequality fell.

Keywords: Mexico; Inequality; Labor markets; Firm heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F66 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Working Paper: Tracking Wage Inequality Trends with Prices and Different Trade Models: Evidence from Mexico (2016)
Working Paper: Tracking wage inequality trends with prices and different trade models: evidence from Mexico (2015)
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DOI: 10.1007/s10290-017-0291-3

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