The Effects of the Bracero Program (1942-1964) on Educational Attainment, Marriage, and Divorce in Mexico (thesis)

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the effects of the Bracero program, which brought Mexican workers into the United States on temporary guest worker visas from 1942 through 1964. I build on Kosack (2019) which focuses on the effects of the program on educational attainment for the school-aged population in Mexican states. I use a similar empirical strategy, which instruments for the number of braceros in each state using the locations of recruitment centers. However, I introduce a larger data set and measure the distance to the recruitment center in three different ways. I also use the same empirical strategy to examine the effects of the program on marriage and divorce which, to the best of my knowledge, has not yet been researched. I find ambiguous results regarding educational attainment, but a decrease in both marriage and divorce for states with more exposure to the program.