Liberalisation and its impact on migration in agricultural communities in Mexico

This paper examines market liberalisation measures taken by the Mexican government in the 1990s and their impact on migration. It looks at the events that affected small agricultural producers of basic crops, such as the removal of price supports and input subsidies, changes in property rights laws of communal landowners and the reduction of tariffs on agricultural imports and their impact on migration to the US. Using a difference-in-differences approach reveals that reliance on basic crop production is positively and significantly associated with increases in migration rates. There are also small effects of exposure to changes in property rights and negative but insignificant effects of exposure to globalisation on migration to the US.