Tijuana's Dynamic Unemployment and Output Growth

Résumé 0

During the 1990s, Mexico successfully implemented a program of economic reforms and free trade aimed at a complete restructuring of its economy. Surprisingly, the reform process seems to have had little impact on unemployment. An analysis of trends indicates that, even in the worst years of economic crisis, average unemployment rates in Mexico did not exceed 7.4% (reached in the third quarter of 1995). Tijuana's unemployment rate averaged 0.725% in 2001, when the economy was experiencing the start of a recession and major structural reforms were expected. These figures seem very low when compared to those for other countries. This article's goal is to evaluate transitory demand shocks and permanent supply shocks in Tijuana's unemployment time series, as given by that identification restriction and the structural break unit root methodology. Okun's Law is also tested for the Tijuana unemployment series.