Summary

This article provides an integrated theoretical and empirical strategy for exploring the impacts of three changes in Mexico (namely changing economic opportunities, migration and conditional cash transfers) on secondary school attainment. Relevant to our review is the discussion of the expansion of Fair Trade-organic coffee cooperatives and its potential impact on schooling in comparison with the other two changes.

Abstract

We explore three trends in rural southern Mexico (Fair Trade coffee, migration, and conditional cash transfers) that could explain the rapid rise in education from 1995–2005 using survey data from 845 coffee farming households in Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. Results from a household fixed-effects model show that household participation in a Fair Trade-organic cooperative contributed to about a 0.7 year increase in schooling for girls. US migration opportunities appear to have even stronger positive impacts on schooling for females. Although participation in Fair Trade-organic cooperatives appears also to have increased male schooling, increased migration opportunities have had an indeterminate effect for males.

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