diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 973b4c0abcde2..a436f451a2a55 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -450,7 +450,7 @@ def srcpath(name=None, suffix='.pyx', subdir='src'):
 
 
 def pxd(name):
-    return os.path.abspath(pjoin('pandas', name + '.pxd'))
+    return pjoin('pandas', name + '.pxd')
 
 
 # args to ignore warnings