Unemployment and growth in the tourism sector in Mexico: Revisiting the growth-rate version of Okun's law

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze, by means of the difference version of Okun's law, the relationship between tourism sector growth and unemployment in Mexico during the period 2000Q2-2018Q4. The results show that tourism growth is a palliative for unemployment, whereas unemployment reduces the growth of the tourism sector. The results also show that the relationship between the mentioned variables becomes stronger during an economic crisis and weaker during expansion periods.