re: re: mechanisms of core wealth

in his interesting contribution of 25 May 1999 under the above heading,
Elson discusses various mechanisms of core-periphery economic interaction,
including market mechanisms, and mentions "unequal exchange, colonialism,
neo-colonialism..."
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when i take my hat as a quantifier (or, the hat of a Third World worker),
then the following question is intriguing:
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if the Third World worker gets US$ 3.00 for the same work for which the
First World worker gets US$ 15.00, how much of this wage differential is due
to "market" and how much is due to "institutions" (including historically
grown racism embedded in the world system)? [i am thinking of car assembly
workers in Mexico and Canada. if i would compare a Turkish or Caribbean
fruit picker and a Canadian car assembly worker, the situation would be more
difficult to evaluate. the Mexican and Canadian car assembly workers perform
the same quality work in the same type of branch plant of a global car
manufacturing company.]
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in non-quantitative analysis both "market" and "institutions" have been
identified as contributing to the wage differential. Can their relative
contribution to that wage differential be measured? [in my example, the
physical output per hour is the same for both the Mexican and Canadian
worker.] [i am aware that my example is at the micro-level, whereas Elson's
discussion is at the world-system level or macro-level.]

gernot