This paper examines wage inequality in the manufacturing sector for a panel of Latin American and East Asian economies during the last three decades. A labor supply and demand model is presented where three main determinants of wage inequality are investigated: trade openness, technology transfer, and labor supply. Findings indicate that wage inequality in the two regions has responded differently to the various determinants enumerated above. Some lessons from the comparative experience of the two regions are drawn. Copyright � 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation � 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The debt crisis of the 1980s caused the development strategy pursued by the Mexican government to be subject to a radical adjustment process that triggered deep repercussions for the agricultural sector and its farmers, particularly in the corn sector. In combination with the aggressive agricultural policies sustained by the U.S. government, the new approach meant that Mexican agriculture operated within an economic environment characterized by significant asymmetries and distortions, some internal and some imposed by major trading partners. This article summarizes and documents the most salient results of these policy events as well as their implications for the corn sector, and discusses some of the challenges to repair the agricultural sector in Mexico.

Abstract:Using Mexican household level data, this paper examines the consumption response to the world food price shocks of 2006-2008 and 2010-2012 and assesses the vulnerability of poor rural and urban households. The analysis allows for substitution among food and non-food consumption groups, rather than substitution only within food consumption groups as most of the current literature has done it. Evidence shows that poor households made adjustments in their budget shares beyond the theoretically predicted as they tried to mitigate the negative welfare impacts of the food price shocks. Findings also show that most urban and rural poor households are net food buyers and thus vulnerable to food price hikes.

Estimación del impacto económico de los Juegos Panamericanos Guadalajara 2011: análisis de insumo-producto antonio avalos 1 n Resumen: Empleando un análisis de insumo-producto, el estudio estima el impacto económico de corto plazo que los Juegos Panamericanos producirán en la economía del estado de Jalisco en 2011. El estudio utiliza el método RAS para actualizar y estimar la matriz de insumo-producto del estado a partir de la matriz de insumoproducto nacional. Los resultados muestran que el impacto acumulado de la inversión en los Juegos en el PIB del estado desde 2007 es de cerca del 5 por ciento, mientras que el número total de empleos generados en el 2011 ascenderá a cerca de 50,000. La estimación también muestra que las industrias de la construcción y el comercio experimentarán beneficios substanciales. Se concluye que la inversión realizada para el evento ha contribuido a suavizar los efectos de la recesión mundial y ha contribuido a la recuperación económica de Jalisco.

"The California San Joaquin Valley labor market appears to be at odds with basic economic principles in the sense that despite higher unemployment rates and lower wages, it has continually attracted an influx of in-migrants, domestic and international. By examining county-level data for the last two decades, the analysis in this paper is built around two main questions. First, in what proportion does local employment growth reduce local unemployment, increase labor force participation and attract outsiders who will likely take the newly created jobs? Second, to what extent regional migration rates respond to regional relative wages and unemployment differentials? Both questions aim to gain a better understanding of the San Joanquin Valley labor market and the migrants' decisions to move there, which might shed light in the design and implementation of development policies aimed at reducing unemployment. Results provide evidence that market forces alone are insufficient to correct regional unemployment disparities. Three main findings are offered. First, in-migrants workers fill most of the newly created jobs. Second, migration seems unresponsive to the unemployment level but responsive to changes in farm income. Third, migration is sensitive to government-based benefits, property crime rates and housing prices". ("JEL" R11, R23, R58) Copyright (c) 2009 Western Economic Association International.