Wages and productivity in Mexican manufacturing

The author identifies the determinants of wages and productivity in Mexico over time using national representative linked employer-employee databases from the manufacturing sector. She shows that both employers and employees are benefiting from investments in education, training, work experience, foreign research and development, and openness after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Additional years of schooling have a higher impact on wages and productivity after NAFTA than before. Endogenous training effects are larger for productivity than for wages, suggesting that the employers share the costs and returns to training. The author also finds that investment in human capital magnifies technology-driven productivity gains. By comparing four regions of Mexico-north, center, south, and Mexico City-regional wage and productivity gaps are found to have increased over time.Poverty Impact Evaluation,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Poverty Impact Evaluation,Municipal Financial Management

School attendance and child labor in Ecuador

The author uses the Ecuador Living Standards and Measurement Surveys (LSMS 1998 and 1999) to analyze the characteristics and determinants of child labor and schooling. She shows how interventions at the level of adults affect child labor and school enrollment. For example, an employment policy encouraging employment in the formal modern sector reduces child labor and increases schooling. In rural areas, a wage policy (increase in the wage of the household head) has positive implications for the children, while it is less effective in urban areas.Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education,Early Childhood Development,Children and Youth,Street Children,Youth and Governance,Children and Youth,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Gender and Education

Learning outcomes and school cost-effectiveness in Mexico : the PARE program

Past research often attributed most differences in student learning to socioeconomic factors, implying that the potential for direct educational interventions to reduce learning inequality was limited. The author shows that learning achievement can be improved through appropriately designed and reasonably well-implemented interventions. The author studies the impact of the Programa para Abatir el Rezago Educativo (PARE), a program designed to improve the quality and efficiency of primary education in four Mexican states by improving school resources. The PARE program increased learning achievement in rural and native schools, where students had typically not performed as well as other students (in Spanish). Not only did students'cognitive abilities improve under the PARE program, but the probability of their continuing in school improved. In rural areas where the PARE design was fully implemented, test scores for the average student increased considerably. A 30 percent deficit in test scores among rural students could be overcome by roughly doubling the resources allocated per student.Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Gender and Education,Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Primary Education,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Educational Sciences

Evaluation of National School for Professional Technology Education in Mexico

The National School for Professional Technology Education (CONALEP) is Mexico's largest and oldest technical education system. CONALEP serves low-income students at the upper-secondary school level in Mexico. The labor market performance of CONALEP graduates has been evaluated four times in the past. These evaluations have yielded encouraging results, showing that CONALEP's graduates find jobs faster and earn higher wages than similar"control"groups. In contrast, using non-experimental methods, this paper suggests that CONALEP's graduates might earn higher wages but do not find jobs faster compared with control groups.Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Primary Education,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Girls Education

Teachers'salaries and professional profile in Mexico

Teachers'salaries have often been highlighted as an important issue in discussionson school improvement. The level and structure of teacher remuneration affect morale and the ability to focus on and devote adequate time to teaching. The author examines who teachers are, whether teachers are underpaid, and whether teachers face higher compensation uncertainty than their counterparts face. The results show that teachers in basic education consistently work fewer hours than their occupational counterparts. Regression analysis shows that teachers in basic public schools are better paid early in their professional lives than are other comparable individuals. Because retirement benefits are usually generous, teachers stay within the profession.Girls'Education,Public Health Promotion,Primary Education,Gender and Education,Teaching and Learning,Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Gender and Education,Girls Education,ICT Policy and Strategies

A duration analysis of CONALEP (Mexico's National Technical Professional School)

Mexico's National Technical Professional School (Colegio Nacional de Educaci?n Profesional T?cnica, CONALEP) is the largest technical education system in the country. CONALEP serves low-income students at the upper-secondary school level in Mexico. Using graduate tracer surveys from CONALEP, the author analyzes the impact of modular courses and reform programs implemented by CONALEP in 1991-92 on CONALEP graduates'labor market outcomes. Results indicate that graduates from the pre-reform program had to search longer for a job compared with those of the post-reform program. Graduates from the post-reform program have 45 percent higher probability of finding a job than those from the pre-reform program. However, the pre-reform program cohorts earned higher hourly wages than those from the post-reform program.Girls'Education,Teaching and Learning,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Public Health Promotion,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Primary Education,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Girls Education

Determinants of technology adoption in Mexico

The author tries to identify the impact of firm-, region-, and industry-specific characteristics on technology adoption by Mexican firms. Cross-sectional and panel data from 1992-99 show that the firms most likely to adopt new technology are large, train workers, have highly skilled workers, are near the U.S. border, and are owned by foreign entities. Also, bigger firms, firms with a large share of highly skilled workers, and firms that train workers, use intensively more complex technologies in their production process.ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Research,General Technology,Environmental Economics&Policies,Curriculum&Instruction,ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,General Technology,Curriculum&Instruction

Technology and skill demand in Mexico

The author investigates the effects of technology on the employment and wages of differently skilled Mexican manufacturing workers using firm panel data from 1992-99. She analyzes the relationship between technology and skill demand. Findings support the skill-biased technical change hypothesis. She then examines the temporal relationship of technology adoption to firm productivity and worker wages. The author finds that skilled labor increases after technology adoption. And wages of both skilled and semi-skilled workers exhibit markedly increased growth rates compared with the growth rate of low-skilled workers. The results show that investment in human capital improves technology-driven productivity gains.Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Municipal Financial Management

Marginal willingness to pay for education and the determinants of enrollment in Mexico

Standard benefit-incidence analysis assumes that the subsidy, and quality of education services are the same for all income deciles. This strong assumption tends to minimize the distributional inequity at various education levels. Using a new approach, emphasizing marginal willingness to pay for education, the authors analyze the impact of public spending on the education spending behavior of the average household. They address several questions: What would an average household, with a given set of characteristics be willing to spend on an individual child, with given traits if subsidized public education facilities were unavailable? What would the household have saved by sending the child to public school rather than private school? How great are these savings for various income groups? What are the determinants of enrollment by income group, and by location? How do individuals'education expenditures affect enrollment patterns? Among their findings: 1) The non-poor households in urban areas get much of the subsidy, or"savings"from government provision of education services. 2) The wealthy value private education more than the poor do. 3) Differences in school quality are greater at the primary level. In other words, wealthy households get the lion's share of benefits from public spending on education. Household school enrollment, and transition to the next level of schooling, depend heavily on the cost of schooling, how far the head of the household went in school, the per capita household income, and the housing facilities, or services. But the government's effort also affects the probability of enrollment, and transition. The probability of enrollment is much higher for the 40 percent of higher-income households in urban areas, than it is for the 40 percent of lower-income households in rural areas. The best way to increase school enrollment is to successfully target public spending on education to poor households.Public Health Promotion,Primary Education,Education Reform and Management,Teaching and Learning,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Education Reform and Management,Health Economics&Finance

Supply-side school improvement and the learning achievement of the poorest children in indigenous and rural schools - the case of PARE

In the past, research findings indicated that most of the differences in student learning were due to socioeconomic factors, and that, therefore, the effect of direct educational interventions to reduce learning inequality was very limited. However, the authors show that learning achievement could increase through appropriately designed, and reasonably well-implemented interventions. An examination of Mexico's PARE program reveals that an increase in learning achievement could be possible for rural, and indigenous schools. The authors'overall conclusion is that supply-side interventions can have substantial effects on the learning achievement of children in indigenous, and rural schools in poor areas. But greater attention needs to be paid to the poorest of the disadvantaged children. This positive conclusion, however, should be tempered by results of the urban sample, confirming earlier findings of the negative relationship between PARE, and student learning growth.Public Health Promotion,Teaching and Learning,Educational Sciences,Primary Education,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Teachingand Learning,Primary Education,Gender and Education,Educational Sciences,Health Monitoring&Evaluation