Exports and Within-Plant Wage Distributions: Evidence from Mexico

Judith A. Frias, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social
David S. Kaplan, Inter-American Development Bank
Eric Verhoogen, Columbia University

Abstract

This paper has had the modest goal of establishing several facts about the effect of exporting on within-plant wage distributions, focusing on wages at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles. There are three key findings: (1) there is no evidence of an effect of exporting on wages at the 10th percentile; (2) the wage effects of exporting are larger at higher percentiles, up to the 75th; and (3) there is no evidence of an increase in dispersion between the 75th and 90th percentiles. The third fact suggests that the increase in within-plant wage dispersion is not due solely to wage increases for top managers.