Employment and unemployment in the integration processes (NAFTA and EU): the cases of Mexico and Spain

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to prove that during the last 12 years Spain has been able to raise the standard of living of its workers to a level analogous to that of workers in its European Union partners, while Mexico has not only been unable to do the same under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but the standard of living of Mexican workers has declined significantly relative to that of their U.S. and Canadian counterparts. To support this thesis, a set of economic indicators is presented.