Fair Trade-Organic Coffee Cooperatives, Migration, and Secondary Schooling in Southern Mexico

Abstract

From 1995 to 2005 educational attainment of youth in rural Southern Mexico rose dramatically. Three distinct trends emerged in the region that could explain the rise in education. First, thousands of coffee-producing households joined cooperatives that have entered Fair Trade relationships and/or began adopting organic practices. Then, beginning in approximately 2000, US migration took off, while intra-Mexico migration steadily increased, providing remittance income and more lucrative alternatives in labor markets outside of coffee production. Third, Progresa/Oportunidades, a conditional cash transfer program aimed at promoting education, became available to families in the region in 1998 and 1999. Using survey data from 845 coffee farming households in Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico, this paper explores how participation in Fair Trade-organic cooperatives coffee price premiums, migration, and Progresa/Oportunidades shape education attainment for young adults (16-25). Results from a household fixed-effects model show that participating in a Fair Trade-organic cooperative contributed to a one-half year increase in schooling for girls over the study period. The impacts of US migration opportunities appear to have even stronger positive impacts on years of schooling for females, while for males increased migration opportunities tend to diminish the positive effects of being in a Fair Trade- organic cooperative on educational attainment.Latin America, Mexico, Fair Trade, Organic, Migration, Education.