Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP8835
Authors: Judith A. Fras; David Kaplan; Eric A. Verhoogen
Abstract: 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.
Keywords: exports; wage distribution
JEL Codes: F16; J31
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| exporting (F10) | wages at the 10th percentile (J31) |
| exporting (F10) | wages at the 75th percentile (J31) |
| wages at the 75th percentile (J31) | wage dispersion between 75th and 90th percentiles (J31) |
| exporting (F10) | wage dispersion (J31) |