Studying the interaction of political and economic institutions in Mexico during the period of 1870-1930, this book shows how institutional change can foment economic growth.

The Mexican economy underwent a process of growth and transformation in the twentieth century, which was confirmed by the indexes and figures that economists use to chart the rate of growth, even allowing for possible inaccuracies in these figures. This volume of six essays makes readily available to English-speaking readers a selection of significant contributions by outstanding Mexican economists dealing with the mid-twentieth-century growth of the Mexican economy. Enrique Pérez López provides an overview of the development of the gross national product in the economy and the structural changes that were imperative if basic social goals were to be implemented and the optimal adjustments to changing world conditions effected. Ernesto Fernández Hurtado discusses the process of accommodation and cooperation between the public and the private sectors that has contributed significantly to economic growth, stressing particularly the role of agriculture. Mario Ramón Beteta describes central bank policy and the functioning of the Central Bank, showing how control over credit and the banking system assures stability and accelerating growth through its credit rationing. Alfredo Navarrete R. traces the sources of domestic savings that have provided 90 percent of the capital employed in the economy since the Revolution, and Ifigenia M. de Navarrete demonstrates that rapid economic growth has not resulted in a more equitable distribution of income. Victor Urquidi stresses the balanced growth, achieved by allocating public capital formation to basic infrastructure, that has helped develop agriculture as well as industry, and indicates the nature of the structural change that must occur if the economy is to expand rapidly. In his introduction Tom E. Davis compares growth in Mexico with developments during the same period in Chile and Argentina. The country reached its midcentury standard of living after fifty years of drastic social and political changes under a constitution that altered the system and the concept of private property and the role of the state. These new concepts brought about changes in the structure of production and social relationships, together with a rise to new cultural, technical, and moral levels. These changes, in turn, placed Mexico in a new position with new problems. A question that must be answered is whether the economic goals of the future require a reappraisal of social relationships and of the ways of administering and utilizing the country’s resources and potential productivity.

This dissertation presents four essays on inequality, credit constraints, and economic growth in the Mexican economy in its recent history, or "contemporary Mexico". In the first essay, it is argued that the possibility that wealth/income inequality could affect economic growth has been neglected in the contemporary Mexican economy literature. Also, preliminary thoughts on the channels through which inequality could have been affecting growth are offered. In the second essay, a time series, macroeconometric analysis on the possible relationship between inequality and aggregate production (GDP) in Mexico is presented. The analysis suggests that an increase in inequality boosts the economy, but that such effect is very short lived and is followed by a much more prolonged negative effect. In the third essay the question of how, if at all, credit constraints have been affecting physical capital investment is addressed. The analysis is carried out using establishment-level data that are both recent and reasonably nationally representative. To the best of my knowledge this is a novel contribution. It is a common tenet of the literature on why Mexico -despite its vast liberalization process occurring since the 1980s- has not achieved high and sustained growth, that credit constraints are an important reason explaining the sluggish growth. When digging deeper in the literature, however, very few empirical studies offering evidence in favor of such claim are found; a contribution using microeconomic data with the intention of being nationally representative could not be found. Consistent with the general claims of the literature, the findings of the analysis are that credit constraints negatively affected investment decisions. The fourth essay examines theoretical issues. The links between credit constraints and growth may seem obvious. But one would still like to have a clarification of the mechanisms, through formal modeling. To the best of my knowledge, such a formal model has not been proposed in the recent Mexican literature. The essay, thus, presents a model in which credit constraints can reduce capital accumulation. It is, I believe, applicable to the contemporary Mexico case.

In 1800, the per capita income of the United States was twice that of Mexico and roughly the same as Brazil's. By 1913, it was four times greater than Mexico's and seven times greater than Brazil's. This volume seeks to explain the nineteenth-century lag in Latin American economic development. Breaking with the longstanding dependency tradition in Latin American historiography, the contributors argue that the slowdown had far more to do with internal political and legal structures than foreign influences. Topics covered include the performance of Mexico and Brazil, the impact of independence, capital markets, regional growth, the impact of railroads, and the economic effects of 'culture'. The editor's introductory essay surveys the history of economic growth theories and Latin American economic historiography. -- Publisher's description.