Assessing employment benefits from trade: US-Mexico trade under NAFTA
Por:
Vazquez-Lopez, Raul
Publicada:
2 oct 2023
Ahead of Print:
1 jun 2022
Categoría:
Economics and econometrics
Resumen:
Recent tendencies in the operation of Global Value Chains (GVC) have
indicated an increasingly asymmetric distribution of benefits in terms
of the participating countries and different layers of workers. This
paper employs the World Input-Output Database to calculate the working
hours and wages embodied in manufacturing exports between the US and
Mexico, by country of origin and skill level, from 1995 to 2008. In
purchasing power, the increase in total wages paid in the US, generated
by the bilateral trade, was significantly higher than that of wages paid
in Mexico, even though the additional number of hours worked in Mexico
was seven times higher. For the US, the results ratify the loss of jobs
after 2001, but with an upgrade of the skill structure. We conclude that
the trend towards replacement of low-skilled labour by more
capital-intensive systems occurs within GVC to the detriment of the
incomes of low-skilled workers.
Filiaciones:
Vazquez-Lopez, Raul:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)–Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas (IIEc.), Mexico City, Mexico
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