Effects of Trade Liberalization on the Gender Wage Gap in Mexico

The authors study the manufacturing sector in urban Mexico during the trade liberalization period (1987-1993) in order to establish if there was a change in the gender wage gap after opening up to competition.

The most important finding in the paper is that trade may be beneficial to women because it decreases wage discrimination, but for there to be an improvement in women’s relative wages depends on improving women’s skills to better compete in the newly competitive markets.