Three Essays in Labor and Regional Economics
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Duran Vanegas, Juan David, Three Essays in Labor and Regional Economics, Trinity College Dublin, School of Social Sciences & Philosophy, Economics, 2023Download Item:
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Abstract:
This dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 uses the 1994 North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and granular data on Mexican municipalities to study
the local effects of trade liberalization on college wage premiums, housing costs, and
urban amenities between 1990 and 2010. I measure local exposure to international trade
by constructing a market access database of each municipality's lowest-cost route to the
closest US truck port. I find that municipalities facing larger trade exposure experienced:
(1) declines in local wage differences between college and non-college graduates, both in
nominal and real terms; (2) smaller increases in local urban amenities. I interpret these
results under the notion of spatial equilibrium in which non-monetary urban amenities
compensate for gaps in real wages across cities.
Chapter 2 analyzes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on labor market outcomes
for men and women in Mexico. Using a large longitudinal dataset and an event-study
design, I find that the labor market effects of the pandemic differed by gender and changed
considerably over time. While men temporarily suffered from a higher probability of
unemployment, women experienced greater and more persistent declines in labor force
participation. By exploring the heterogeneity of the effects across sub-samples, I show
that these disparities in the recovery of labor participation are mainly driven by increased
childcare needs and are linked to women being over-represented in informal and part-time
jobs.
Chapter 3 investigates how gender gaps vary across space and time using census microdata
for Mexico during 1990-2010. I document that female-to-male gaps in working hours
increased on average for all municipality sizes, but this increase was disproportionately
greater in smaller compared to larger municipalities. This novel empirical pattern also
coincides with a more rapid increase in the share of services in smaller locations that initially
specialized in producing goods (primary activities and manufacturing). Motivated
by these stylized facts, I quantify the impact of industry-specific labor demand shocks
on local gender gaps in working hours and explore the heterogeneity of the effects across municipality sizes. I find that labor demand shocks in the goods industry only affect
female relative work hours in small municipalities. My results suggest that the interaction
between industry specialization across locations, industry differences in female labor
intensities, and the rise of the service economy boosted female employment in smaller
cities.
Description:
APPROVED
Author: Duran Vanegas, Juan David
Advisor:
Kirchberger, MartinaPublisher:
Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of EconomicsType of material:
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