How Correlated Are Mexico’s Wages and U.S. Output? An Inquiry into Selected U.S. Border Cities
Abstract
In this essay we pursue the question about the nature of integration that there is between the Mexican cities’ labor market located along the northern border and the US economy. We also inquiry whether there has been any change in such a relationship over time. Using the Hodrick-Prescott filter we are able to establish the short and long term behavior of the wage rates in the four largest US Border Mexican cities. We find that there has been a change in the nature of the relationship between the cyclical components of the Mexican labor income and US output. We also find some evidence about growth convergence within northern border Mexican labor incomes.
Keywords
Labor income, labor market integration, US-Mexico border, Hodrick-Prescott filter
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