2020-21 Abstract: Skin Color Inequality in Mexico: A Sibling Fixed Effects Approach  

Within  the  last  five  years,  researchers  have  uncovered  vast  evidence  of  significant  skin-color-based inequalities in Mexico. These findings have challenged Mexico’s national ideology of Mestizaje, which downplayed the significance  of  race  within  the  Mexican  population. However, it is  still  not  clear  what factors  are  producing  these  inequalities. This will be a quantitative research project which aims to illuminate the social mechanisms that produce these color-based inequalities in contemporary Mexico. The results of the study will contribute  to the sociological  understanding  of  how racial  cues  produce  and  reproduce inequality in a setting in which these boundaries are fluid and are not maintained by legal precepts. This study  will also identify  the  precise  mechanisms  that  produce  these  skin color gaps, which could inform public policies designed to ameliorate racial inequality.