Skilled-Unskilled Workers Wage Gap in Mexico: a Regional Approach of the Exposure to trade Openness

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the skilled-unskilled wage gap generated by the economic openness and determines if the Stolper-Samuelson theorem is accomplished in Mexico. This work analyses the years 2005, 2009 and 2014. The economic aperture's effect is showed by the regionalization of the country in three areas, according to their exposure to the economic aperture. The wage gap analysis is made by the Juhn, Murphy and Pierce decomposition method developed in 1991. As a result, it is observed that in the period of analysis the skilled-unskilled wage gap was reduced, according what the Stolper-Samuelson theorem predicts, however, this reduction was a result of the wage's precariousness of both skill and unskilled workers in Mexico and in its regions.