Affiliations: [a] Department of Economics, México, Colonia Pedregal de Santa Teresa, Mexico | [b] Department of Economics, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez, Department of Economics, El Colegio de México, Camino al Ajusco 20, Col. Pedregal de Santa Teresa, Mexico. Tel.: +52 55 5449 3000 ext. 4153; E-mail: rmcampos@colmex.mx.
Abstract: We analyse the evolution and proximate determinants of labour income inequality in Mexico between 1989 and 2017. Labour income inequality increased between 1989 and 1994 and declined between 1994 and 2006. What happened after 2006 is subject to uncertainty. The national labour force survey shows a steady decline and the income expenditure survey suggests that inequality increased. We correct for high and rising item (labour income) non-response and under-representation of high-wage earners through a ‘hot deck’ imputation method and, for workers in the formal sector, through post-survey weight adjustments. We obtain the new weights for formal workers from tabulations recently released by the Mexican social security administration. With corrected data, inequality no longer declines between 2006 and 2017.
Keywords: Inequality, labour income, post-survey reweighting, imputation, decomposition methods, Mexico
