This article studies the evolution of the earnings obtained by Mexican-born workers that live in Mexico but work in the US, with respect to the earnings obtained by Mexican-born workers that reside in Mexico in municipalities adjacent to the United States. Between 2000 and 2010 there was a significant decline in the quantity of cross-border workers, followed by a slight increase between 2010 and 2015. The study shows that cross-border workers earn nearly double what similarly skilled non-cross border workers earn, where these differentials are accentuated among women and the low-educated. Given that the two groups have similar human capital levels, the earnings gap is mainly a result of the different returns to their productivity related characteristics they receive in the US and Mexican labor markets, respectively. Besides their higher earnings, cross-border workers also have shorter workweeks and are more likely to be male, married and salaried employees. © 2017, © 2017 Association for Borderlands Studies.

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