Substantive equality reform between women and men and the gender wage gap in Mexico City

This study examines the relationship between Mexico City’s 2019 substantive equality reform and the gender wage gap, drawing on repeated cross-sections from the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE/ENOEN). The analysis combines a Mincer earnings framework, a pseudo-panel by educational level, and survey-weighted estimates of the adjusted female wage coefficient for selected periods between 2018 and 2024. Returns to schooling differ substantially across educational levels: the pseudo-panel coefficients are negative for primary and lower-secondary education, positive but imprecise for upper-secondary education, and positive for undergraduate and postgraduate education. In Mexico City, the estimated female coefficients are small and statistically insignificant in all reported survey periods. Consequently, the descriptive and adjusted associations reported here do not establish a causal impact of the 2019 reform. Future research should examine comparable control regions and account for the pandemic-related labor-market shock.