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Some Benefit, Some Are Left Behind: NAFTA and Educational Attainment in the United States

Leopoldo Gòmez-Ramírez () and María Padilla-Romo ()
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Leopoldo Gòmez-Ramírez: Universidad del Norte
María Padilla-Romo: Department of Economics, University of Tennessee, https://sites.google.com/site/mariaspadillaromo/

No 2021-02, Working Papers from University of Tennessee, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper examines the persistent effects of eliminating tariffs on Mexican imports, following the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), on Americans' human capital investment. We leverage quasi-experimental changes in tariffs on Mexican imports following NAFTA across birth cohorts and within states. We show that NAFTA increases the probability of ever attending college and earning a degree. These results, however, mask important heterogeneous effects within the sample. In terms of race and ethnicity, gender, and their intersection, we find white Americans drive these positive effects, which in turn are smaller for white women. In contrast, the educational attainment of racial and ethnic minorities, especially men, shrank under NAFTA, decreasing their probability of graduating from high school.

Keywords: NAFTA; human capital; trade openness; inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 F61 I24 J15 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2021-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int and nep-ure
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http://web.utk.edu/~jhollad3/RePEc/2021-02.pdf First version, 2021 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ten:wpaper:2021-02

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