Family Income Inequality and the Role of Married Females' Earnings in Mexico: 1988-2010

We study family income inequality in Mexico from 1988 to 2010. The share of married females' income among married couples grew from 13 to 23 percent in the period. However, the correlation of married males' and married females' earnings has been fairly stable at 0.28, one of the highest correlations recorded across countries. We follow Cancian and Reed's (1999) methodology in order to analize whether married females' income equalizes total family income distribution. We investigate several counterfactuals and conclude that the increment in female employment has contributed to a decrease in family income inequality through a rise in married females' labor supply in poor families.