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Family Income Inequality and the Role of Married Females' Earnings in Mexico: 1988-2010

Author

Listed:
  • Raymundo M. Campos Vazquez

    (El Colegio de México)

  • Andres Hincapie

    (Washington University in St. Louis)

  • Ruben Irvin Rojas-Valdes

    (El Colegio de México)

Abstract

We study family income inequality in Mexico from 1988 to 2010. The share of married females' income among married couples grew from 13 to 23 percent in the period. However, the correlation of married males' and married females' earnings has been fairly stable at 0.28, one of the highest correlations recorded across countries. We follow Cancian and Reed's (1999) methodology in order to analize whether married females' income equalizes total family income distribution. We investigate several counterfactuals and conclude that the increment in female employment has contributed to a decrease in family income inequality through a rise in married females' labor supply in poor families.

Suggested Citation

  • Raymundo M. Campos Vazquez & Andres Hincapie & Ruben Irvin Rojas-Valdes, 2012. "Family Income Inequality and the Role of Married Females' Earnings in Mexico: 1988-2010," Serie documentos de trabajo del Centro de Estudios Económicos 2012-08, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos.
    • Handle: RePEc:emx:ceedoc:2012-08
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    Cited by:

    1. Patricia Gallego-Granados & Johannes Geyer, 2015. "Distributional and Behavioral Effects of the Gender Wage Gap," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 753, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    2. Rojas Valdes, Ruben I. & Lin Lawell, C.-Y. Cynthia & Taylor, J. Edward, 2017. "The Dynamic Migration Game: A Structural Econometric Model and Application to Rural Mexico," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 259184, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Rosangela Bando, 2019. "Evidence-based gender equality policy and pay in Latin America and the Caribbean: progress and challenges," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 28(1), pages 1-23, December.
    4. Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez & Luis F. Lopez-Calva & Nora Lustig, 2015. "Declining Wages for College-Educated Workers in Mexico: Are Younger or Older Cohorts Hurt the Most?," Working Papers 1522, Tulane University, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    income inequality; female employment; female earnings; Latin America; Mexico;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

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