Tracing the Local Impacts of Exports on Poverty and Inequality in Mexico

Evidence on the effect of exports on welfare at the local level is scarce. Using a unique data set of international trade and poverty maps for almost 2,000 Mexican municipalities between 2004 and 2014, the study presented in this paper provides new...

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Main Authors: Rodríguez-Castelán, Carlos, Vazquez, Emmanuel, Winkler, Hernan
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/478291603811926321/Tracing-the-Local-Impacts-of-Exports-on-Poverty-and-Inequality-in-Mexico
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34692
id okr-10986-34692
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-346922022-09-20T00:11:23Z Tracing the Local Impacts of Exports on Poverty and Inequality in Mexico Rodríguez-Castelán, Carlos Vazquez, Emmanuel Winkler, Hernan EXPORTS POVERTY INEQUALITY INTERNATIONAL TRADE LABOR MARKET MIGRATION GINI COEFFICIENT LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION UNSKILLED LABOR TRADE-RELATED EMPLOYMENT Evidence on the effect of exports on welfare at the local level is scarce. Using a unique data set of international trade and poverty maps for almost 2,000 Mexican municipalities between 2004 and 2014, the study presented in this paper provides new evidence on the impact of a significant rise in exports on poverty and inequality at the local level. The analysis implements an instrumental variable approach that combines the initial structure of exports across municipalities with global trends in exports from developing to developed countries by sector. The results show that a 10 percent increase in the ratio of exports to workers reduces income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient by 0.17 point (using a 0 to 100 scale), but no significant effects on poverty reduction or average household incomes are identified. The lack of impacts on average incomes is driven by a rise in the supply of labor at the local level because municipalities with higher export growth experienced an increase in labor force participation and attracted more net migration, particularly of unskilled workers. Therefore, while total labor incomes grew in response to an increase in exports, average labor income per worker did not change. Declining remittances also blunted the effect of growing exports on household incomes. 2020-10-29T14:14:16Z 2020-10-29T14:14:16Z 2020-10 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/478291603811926321/Tracing-the-Local-Impacts-of-Exports-on-Poverty-and-Inequality-in-Mexico http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34692 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9459 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Latin America & Caribbean Mexico
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic EXPORTS
POVERTY
INEQUALITY
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
LABOR MARKET
MIGRATION
GINI COEFFICIENT
LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION
UNSKILLED LABOR
TRADE-RELATED EMPLOYMENT
spellingShingle EXPORTS
POVERTY
INEQUALITY
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
LABOR MARKET
MIGRATION
GINI COEFFICIENT
LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION
UNSKILLED LABOR
TRADE-RELATED EMPLOYMENT
Rodríguez-Castelán, Carlos
Vazquez, Emmanuel
Winkler, Hernan
Tracing the Local Impacts of Exports on Poverty and Inequality in Mexico
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Mexico
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9459
description Evidence on the effect of exports on welfare at the local level is scarce. Using a unique data set of international trade and poverty maps for almost 2,000 Mexican municipalities between 2004 and 2014, the study presented in this paper provides new evidence on the impact of a significant rise in exports on poverty and inequality at the local level. The analysis implements an instrumental variable approach that combines the initial structure of exports across municipalities with global trends in exports from developing to developed countries by sector. The results show that a 10 percent increase in the ratio of exports to workers reduces income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient by 0.17 point (using a 0 to 100 scale), but no significant effects on poverty reduction or average household incomes are identified. The lack of impacts on average incomes is driven by a rise in the supply of labor at the local level because municipalities with higher export growth experienced an increase in labor force participation and attracted more net migration, particularly of unskilled workers. Therefore, while total labor incomes grew in response to an increase in exports, average labor income per worker did not change. Declining remittances also blunted the effect of growing exports on household incomes.
format Working Paper
author Rodríguez-Castelán, Carlos
Vazquez, Emmanuel
Winkler, Hernan
author_facet Rodríguez-Castelán, Carlos
Vazquez, Emmanuel
Winkler, Hernan
author_sort Rodríguez-Castelán, Carlos
title Tracing the Local Impacts of Exports on Poverty and Inequality in Mexico
title_short Tracing the Local Impacts of Exports on Poverty and Inequality in Mexico
title_full Tracing the Local Impacts of Exports on Poverty and Inequality in Mexico
title_fullStr Tracing the Local Impacts of Exports on Poverty and Inequality in Mexico
title_full_unstemmed Tracing the Local Impacts of Exports on Poverty and Inequality in Mexico
title_sort tracing the local impacts of exports on poverty and inequality in mexico
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2020
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/478291603811926321/Tracing-the-Local-Impacts-of-Exports-on-Poverty-and-Inequality-in-Mexico
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34692
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