DP8835 Exports and Within-Plant Wage Distributions: Evidence from Mexico
Author(s): | Judith A Frías, David Kaplan, Eric A Verhoogen |
Publication Date: | February 2012 |
Keyword(s): | exports, wage distribution |
JEL(s): | F16, J31 |
Programme Areas: | Development Economics |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=8835 |
This short paper examines the effect of exporting on within-plant wage distributions in employer-employee data on Mexican manufacturing plants. Using the late-1994 peso devaluation interacted with initial plant size as a source of exogenous variation in exporting and focusing on wages at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles within each plant, we document three patterns: (1) there is no evidence of an effect of exporting on wages at the 10th percentile; (2) the wage effects of exporting are larger at higher percentiles, up to the 75th; and (3) there is no evidence of an increase in dispersion within the top quartile.