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International migration and the gender wage gap

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2021

Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez Open the ORCID record for Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez [Opens in a new window]  and
Jaime Lara Open the ORCID record for Jaime Lara [Opens in a new window]
Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez*
Affiliation:
Centro de Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Camino al Ajusco 20, Col. Pedregal de Santa Teresa, Mexico City10740, Mexico
Jaime Lara
Affiliation:
División de Negocios, Universidad de Monterrey, Av. Ignacio Morones Prieto 4500 Pte., San Pedro Garza García, N.L.66238, Mexico
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article analyzes the effect of international migration on the wage gap between women and men who remain in Mexico. We use historical distance to the U.S. border over early twentieth-century railroad networks as an exogenous factor causing changes in the relative supply of men and women, due to predominately male migration. A 10% decrease in the relative labor supply of men tends to increase the wage gap between women and men by approximately 1.1 percentage points, suggesting that they are not perfect substitutes. However, the results imply a greater elasticity of substitution between men and women than that suggested by previous studies.

Keywords

Gender gaplabor demandMexican migrationJ01J16J23J82O54
Type
Research Paper
Information
Journal of Demographic Economics , Volume 87 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 213 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain 2021

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