Labor Market Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples in Mexico: A Decomposition Analysis of Wage Differentials

Mexico’s indigenous peoples are amongst the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized. According to the Mexican National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy, the percentage of indigenous peoples who live in poverty in Mexico is nearly double that of the general population: 70.3...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ana Canedo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Stockholm University Press 2019-03-01
Series:Iberoamericana: Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.iberoamericana.se/articles/433
_version_ 1818141952086900736
author Ana Canedo
author_facet Ana Canedo
author_sort Ana Canedo
collection DOAJ
description Mexico’s indigenous peoples are amongst the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized. According to the Mexican National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy, the percentage of indigenous peoples who live in poverty in Mexico is nearly double that of the general population: 70.3 percent versus 38.6 percent, respectively. In this context, the present study aims to explore why the gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous populations is not closing, even after occupational differences and the rural-urban divide are taken into consideration. This paper employs Oaxaca-Blinder (OB) decomposition techniques as well as two quantile decomposition approaches with data from the 2016 National Household Expenditure Revenue Survey (ENIGH) to analyze wage differentials along the entire wage distribution and differences in the prevalence of informal employment among indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Mexico. Understanding the underlying causes of these disparities is crucial for the design of sustainable policies that may help reduce the gap in the living conditions of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. Findings confirm that differences in coefficients account for a significant proportion of the gap in indigenous earnings, indicating that indigenous disadvantage would persist even if human capital outcomes and access to formal employment were to improve for this population subgroup.
first_indexed 2024-12-11T11:08:03Z
format Article
id doaj.art-a438123b73314f64b6b0e799b1c13ba8
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 0046-8444
2002-4509
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-11T11:08:03Z
publishDate 2019-03-01
publisher Stockholm University Press
record_format Article
series Iberoamericana: Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
spelling doaj.art-a438123b73314f64b6b0e799b1c13ba82022-12-22T01:09:38ZengStockholm University PressIberoamericana: Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies0046-84442002-45092019-03-0148110.16993/iberoamericana.433398Labor Market Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples in Mexico: A Decomposition Analysis of Wage DifferentialsAna Canedo0University of Texas at AustinMexico’s indigenous peoples are amongst the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized. According to the Mexican National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy, the percentage of indigenous peoples who live in poverty in Mexico is nearly double that of the general population: 70.3 percent versus 38.6 percent, respectively. In this context, the present study aims to explore why the gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous populations is not closing, even after occupational differences and the rural-urban divide are taken into consideration. This paper employs Oaxaca-Blinder (OB) decomposition techniques as well as two quantile decomposition approaches with data from the 2016 National Household Expenditure Revenue Survey (ENIGH) to analyze wage differentials along the entire wage distribution and differences in the prevalence of informal employment among indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Mexico. Understanding the underlying causes of these disparities is crucial for the design of sustainable policies that may help reduce the gap in the living conditions of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. Findings confirm that differences in coefficients account for a significant proportion of the gap in indigenous earnings, indicating that indigenous disadvantage would persist even if human capital outcomes and access to formal employment were to improve for this population subgroup.https://www.iberoamericana.se/articles/433Indigenous wage inequalityLabor market discriminationMexicoWage decompositionQuantile decomposition
spellingShingle Ana Canedo
Labor Market Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples in Mexico: A Decomposition Analysis of Wage Differentials
Iberoamericana: Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Indigenous wage inequality
Labor market discrimination
Mexico
Wage decomposition
Quantile decomposition
title Labor Market Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples in Mexico: A Decomposition Analysis of Wage Differentials
title_full Labor Market Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples in Mexico: A Decomposition Analysis of Wage Differentials
title_fullStr Labor Market Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples in Mexico: A Decomposition Analysis of Wage Differentials
title_full_unstemmed Labor Market Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples in Mexico: A Decomposition Analysis of Wage Differentials
title_short Labor Market Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples in Mexico: A Decomposition Analysis of Wage Differentials
title_sort labor market discrimination against indigenous peoples in mexico a decomposition analysis of wage differentials
topic Indigenous wage inequality
Labor market discrimination
Mexico
Wage decomposition
Quantile decomposition
url https://www.iberoamericana.se/articles/433
work_keys_str_mv AT anacanedo labormarketdiscriminationagainstindigenouspeoplesinmexicoadecompositionanalysisofwagedifferentials