Selected Papers

PDF Version of Out-Of-Print AEI Article

"Accounting for the Slowdown in Black White Wage Convergence," (with Kevin M. Murphy and Brooks Pierce), in Workers and Their Wages: Changing Patterns in the U.S., (American Enterprise Institute, 1991)

Papers Available in PDF Format

"Is There Still an Added Worker Effect?" (with Simon Potter), August 2007.

• Abstract: Using matched March CPS files we examine labor market transitions of husbands and wives. We find that the "added worker effect"—the greater propensity of non-participating wives to enter the labor force when their husbands exit employment—is still important among a subset of couples but the overall value of marriage as a risk-sharing arrangement has diminished due to the greater positive co-movement of employment within couples. While we find that positive assortative matching on education did increase over time, we find that this shift in composition of couple types alone explains little of the increased positive correlation.

"Does Reducing College Costs Improve Educational Outcomes for Undocumented Immigrants? Evidence from State Laws Permitting Undocumented Immigrants to Pay In-state Tuition at State Colleges and Universities" (with Aimee Chin), January 2007.

• Abstract: Ten states, beginning with Texas and California in 2001, have passed laws permitting undocumented students to pay the in-state tuition rate—rather than the more expensive out-of-state tuition rate—at public universities and colleges. We exploit state-time variation in the passage of the laws to evaluate the effects of these laws on the educational outcomes of Hispanic childhood immigrants who are not U.S. citizens. Specifically, we use individual-level data from the 2001-2005 American Community Surveys supplemented by the 2000 U.S. Census, and estimate the effect of the laws on the probability of attending college for 18-24 year olds who have a high school degree and the probability of dropping out of high school for 16-17 year olds. We find some evidence suggestive of a positive effect of the laws on the college attendance of older Mexican men, although in general estimated effects of the laws are not significantly different from zero. We discuss various reasons for the estimated zero effects. Two important considerations are that little time has elapsed since the state laws were passed and that unchanged federal policy on financial aid and legalization for undocumented students may dampen the state laws’ benefits. Thus, the longer-run effects of the laws may well differ from the short-run effects presented in this paper.

"Did Trade Liberalization Help Women? The Case of Mexico in the 1990s" (with Ernesto Aguayo-Tellez and Jim Airola), New revised version coming soon.

• Abstract: Using Mexican Income and Expenditure Surveys for 1984-2004 and the Mexican Census of Population for 1990 and 2000, we examine relative wages and employment of women in Mexico during the period of trade liberalization and increased foreign direct investment. The gender wage gap was relatively stable during 1989-2004 while the relative supply of women increased, suggesting that relative demand for women increased. Between-industry shifts, consistent with trade-based explanations, account for more than one-third of the demand shift in favor of women, and virtually all the demand shift for less educated women. On the other hand, we find only a weak link between relative demand for women and maquiladora employment (our proxy for foreign direct investment) in state-level regressions. We also find little evidence that changing selection of working women was an important factor over the period as a whole.

"Wage Inequality in Post-Reform Mexico" (with Jim Airola), January 2005.

• Abstract: Using the Mexican Household Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH) covering 1984-2000 we analyze wages and employment in Mexico after trade liberalization and domestic reforms. We find that wage inequality and returns to post-secondary schooling increased rapidly during 1984-1994 but stabilized since that period. The end of inequality growth was due to a severe macroeconomic crisis which adversely impacted the better educated, an increase in education levels at the end of the 1990s, and a slowdown in skill demand in the latter half of the 1990s. Between-industry shifts, consistent with trade-based explanations, account for a part of the increase in skill demand during 1984-1994, but these types of movements actually reduced the demand for skill in the latter part of the 1990s. The equalizing impact of trade was offset by within-industry demand shifts which continued to favor more educated workers. The Mexican experience in the 1990s suggests that market-oriented reforms have a sharp initial impact on inequality which dissipates over time. However, the opening of the economy to trade, foreign capital, and global markets also leads to a more long-run increase in the demand for skill.