Globalization and Mexican labor markets

North American economic integration has had potentially positive implications for Mexican workers, and the perceived competition between Mexican and U.S. workers may not be as accurate as popularly believed. However, the net gains from integration may overshadow important losses for many workers. These losses explain persistent popular opposition to NAFTA and economic integration. ; Three main policy recommendations emerge from these studies. First, Mexico would continue to benefit, on net, from increased economic integration. Second, to the extent possible, Mexico should work to reduce migration restrictions into the United States. Third, the Mexican government should continue to direct adjustment assistance to rural and less economically active areas. Recent research has shown that workers in these areas are especially susceptible to shocks and that workers in more economically dynamic regions suffer much less from adjustment and job loss.Emigration and immigration ; International trade ; Globalization ; Mexico ; Labor market

DEFINING NORTH AMERICAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

Understanding the idea of economic integration may be straightforward, but measuring it is not. The academic literature has identified a wide range of measures that capture various aspects of integration. Of these, the four most frequently used measures are product-level prices, factor markets, trade volumes, and product availability. All four are valuable measures that effectively capture different aspects of economic integration. The differences between the measures suggest that some might be more useful in certain contexts than in others. A comparison between the different measures suggests that the last two might generate the most meaningful insights into North American economic integration because conditions in Mexico, a developing country, are quite different than in Canada and the United States. To motivate the different measures of economic integration, the next section of the paper briefly discusses why economic integration is important. As defined above, economic integration is clearly important for growth, which ultimately determines each countrys standard of living. Integration also drives change, which often is difficult and is therefore resisted. These changes directly affect producers and consumers, and therefore it is important to be able to identify the results of measures designed to foster economic integration, like trade agreements. The sections that follow therefore discuss each different measure of integration and what they tell us about integration in North America.Industrial Organization,

Gravity, Bilateral Agreements, and Trade Diversion in the Americas

Krishna (1998) shows that a bilateral agreement between two countries render a multilateral agreement less attractive if the bilateral agreement is trade diverting. This paper combines Krishna’s model with the empirical approach of Anderson and vaGravity models, asymmetric tariffs, trade diversion

What Happens to Wages After Displacement?

Faced with limited resources, policymakers need to know when and where to target support for displaced workers. The academic literature offers little support, presenting wide-ranging results with no consistent explanation for the observed differences in wages after workers are displaced. In this paper, we demonstrate that the heterogeneity found in the literature is consistent with varying market conditions. The results suggest that support for displaced workers can be more efficiently allocated by considering the timing and location of displacement.Displaced Workers; Mexico

Alien Registration- Robertson, Raymond (Fairfield, Somerset County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/9193/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Robertson, Raymond (Fairfield, Somerset County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/9193/thumbnail.jp

Why We Need the USMCA (the agreement formerly known as NAFTA)

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) fundamentally changed the economic relationship between US and Mexican workers. Research suggests that prior to NAFTA, Mexican and US workers competed for jobs in manufacturing, but now Mexican workers are best described as complements to US workers, and that North America is more accurately described as a single production unit where jobs grow (or shrink) on both sides of the border simultaneously. This issue of The Takeaway argues that after nearly 25 years of NAFTA, we now live in a truly integrated North American economy. Ending NAFTA, or not approving the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), is unlikely to reverse North American economic integration, but would raise costs for those sharing production across borders, making it harder to export our products to the rest of the world

Does Border Enforcement Protect U.S. Workers from Illegal Immigration?

In this paper, we examine the impact of government enforcement of the U.S.-Mexican border on wages in the border regions of the United States and Mexico. The U.S. Border Patrol polices U.S. boundaries, seeking to apprehend any individual attempting to enter the United States illegally. These efforts are concentrated on the Mexican border, as most illegal immigrants embark from a Mexican border city and choose a U.S. border state as their final destination. We examine labor markets in southern California, southwestern Texas, and Mexican cities on the U.S.-Mexico border. For each region, we have high-frequency time-series data on wages and on the number of person hours that the U.S. Border Patrol spends policing border areas. For a range of empirical specifications and definitions of regional labor markets, we find little impact of border enforcement on wages in U.S. border cities and a moderate negative impact of border enforcement on wages in Mexican border cities. These findings are consistent with two hypothesis: (1) border enforcement has a minimal impact on illegal immigration, or (2) immigration from Mexico has a minimal impact on wages in U.S. border cities.

Mexican employment dynamics : evidence from matched firm-worker data

Using a census of all workers in private establishments in the formal sector in Mexico to track workers and establishments over time, this paper presents the first Mexican worker and job flow statistics. The data allow for comparing these flows across time, space, and worker characteristics. Although many patterns are similar to those documented in developing countries, the analysis uncovers patterns that have potentially important policy implications. The authors compare the results to the literature, illustrate how the statistics change during times of reform and crisis, and present novel findings that contribute to the broader literature on worker reallocations.Labor Markets,Microfinance,Labor Policies,Access to Finance,E-Business