Frontera Norte (Jan 2005)
El mercado de trabajo en la frontera norte frente al cierre de empresas maquiladoras
Abstract
This article studies the labor market in Mexico´s northern-border states, and the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the maquiladora industry, and its relationship to employment and wage determination in the region from 1997 through 2004, with special attention to maquiladora closures between 2001 and 2003. Based on a model of the impact of international trade on employment and wages in a certain region, and utilizing a panel data model, the author analyzes the effect that the demand for maquiladora exports has had on the demand for employment and wages, in both the maquiladora industry and the non-maquiladora sector, characterized as a producer of nontradable-goods. The results suggest that, for this period in particular, employment in various sectors of the maquiladora industry determines equilibrium in the job market, and that the supply-and-demand equilibrium in those sectors determines the wages maquiladora firms pay.
