Changes in Occupational Earnings along the U.S.-Mexico Border between 1900 and 1920

摘要

Impoverished conditions on the U.S. side of the Mexican border have recently been identified and analyzed by a host of social scientists and policy makers. Ensuing policy prescriptions generally hinge on promoting business and population expansion in the border region. The presence of local economic growth, however, may not necessarily improve the socioeconomic conditions along the U.S.-Mexico border. For historical perspective, some scholars have noted that the border region experienced economic prosperity in the early 1900s. Indeed, around the turn of the century, an abundance of agricultural and mining opportunities along the U.S.-Mexico border, aided by the expansion of the railroad, created an economic boom that lasted until the late 1920s (Lorey 1999; Fernandez 1989; Foley et al. 1988; Hansen 1981). What remains unclear is whether this expansion improved the labor market income of workers on the U.S. side of the border.