Endogenous Skill Acquisition and Export Manufacturing in Mexico

No 18266, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper presents empirical evidence that the growth of export manufacturing in Mexico during a period of major trade reforms, the years 1986-2000, altered the distribution of education. I use variation in the timing of factory openings across commuting zones to show that school dropout increased with local expansions in export manufacturing. The magnitudes I find suggest that for every twenty-five 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.

JEL-codes: F16 J24 O12 O14 O19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-lab
Note: ITI
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)

Published as David Atkin, 2016. "Endogenous Skill Acquisition and Export Manufacturing in Mexico," American Economic Review, vol 106(8), pages 2046-2085.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Endogenous Skill Acquisition and Export Manufacturing in Mexico (2016)
Working Paper: Endogenous Skill Acquisition and Export Manufacturing in Mexico (2010)
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