Working Paper: NBER ID: w11456
Authors: Pablo Ibarraran; Darren Lubotsky
Abstract: We use data from the 2000 Mexican Census to examine how the education and socioeconomic status of Mexican immigrants to the United States compares to that of non-migrants in Mexico. Our primary conclusion is that migrants tend to be less educated than non-migrants. This finding is consistent with the idea that the return to education is higher in Mexico than in the United States, and thus the wage gain to migrating is proportionately smaller for high-educated Mexicans than it is for lower-educated Mexicans. We also find that the degree of negative selection of migrants is stronger in Mexican counties that have a higher return to education.
Keywords: Mexican immigration; self-selection; 2000 Mexican census
JEL Codes: J6; F2
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| educational attainment (I21) | migration decisions (F22) |
| local returns to education (I26) | selectivity of migrants (J61) |
| degree of negative selection (C52) | higher returns to education (I26) |
| migrants (F22) | less educated than nonmigrants (J69) |
| Mexican immigrants in U.S. Census (K37) | older and have higher skill levels than those in Mexican Census (J79) |