Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract This paper studies the effects of remittances from the U.S. on child labor and school attendance in recipient Mexican households. We identify these effects using the impact of the 2008-2009 U.S. recession on remittance receipts. The methodology employed is a differencesin-differences strategy that compares households that were remittance recipients before the crisis with never-recipient households. To avoid possible selection problems, we instrument for membership in the remittance recipient group. We find that the negative shock on remittance receipts caused a significant increase in child labor and a significant reduction of school attendance. Keywords: Child labor, International migration, Remittances, Mexico. JEL Classification: J43; J81; O15. Terms of use: Documents in ResumenEn este documento se analizan los efectos de las remesas que los hogares mexicanos reciben de Estados Unidos sobre el trabajo infantil y la asistencia escolar. Para la identificación de estos efectos se utiliza el impacto de la recesión estadounidense de 2008-2009 sobre las remesas recibidas. Se emplea una metodología de diferencias-en-diferencias que compara hogares que recibían remesas antes de la crisis con hogares no receptores. Para evitar posibles problemas de selección, se instrumenta la variable de pertenencia al grupo receptor de remesas. Los resultados indican que el choque negativo sobre las remesas causó un incremento significativo del trabajo infantil y una reducción significativa de la asistencia escolar. Palabras Clave: Trabajo infantil, Migración internacional, Remesas, México.

We analyze the labor market consequences of international trade, using the evidence provided by the behavior of Mexican labor markets after the introduction of NAFTA in the nineties and the accession of China to the WTO in 2001. Following an approach close to that proposed by Autor, Dorn and Hanson (2013), we use the local market variation on exposure to international markets to identify the effects of these events. We show that NAFTA integration reduced unemployment, and boosted employment and wages. Chinese competition tended to have the opposite effect. Additionally, we find that the labor market responses to international trade are heterogeneous across regions in the country, being significantly stronger in the regions closer to the U.S. border.

In developing countries, some workers have formal jobs while others are occupied in informal positions. One view regarding this duality suggests that sectors are segmented, which means that a worker in the informal sector identical to another in the formal sector cannot get a formal position due to entry barriers. A second view states that workers self-select into informal jobs. Previous research suggests that these two situations may coexist in the same labor market. In this paper we identify the proportion of informal workers who are in each situation for the case of Mexico. Using a simple model of self-selection with entry barriers into the formal sector, we estimate that between 10 and 20 percent of informal workers would prefer to have a formal job. While this result provides evidence of the presence of some segmentation in the Mexican labor market, it suggests that an important proportion of workers in the informal sector self-select into it.

The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

In this paper we study the causal effect of a large expansion of publicly provided health insurance on school enrollment rates and on children's academic performance using the case of Mexico. Access to free health insurance could improve education outcomes directly by making household members healthier or indirectly by raising the amount of resources available for education expenses. Using a panel of municipalities from 2007 to 2010, we find that the expansion of the Mexican public health insurance program, Seguro Popular, had a large positive, statistically significant effect on school enrollment rates and on standardized test scores. JEL codes: I13, I15, I25, I38.