Spatial Dimensions of Trade Liberalization and Economic Convergence : Mexico 1985-2002

Aroca, Patricio ; Bosch, Mariano ; Maloney, William F.

Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank

关键词: AGRICULTURE;    AVERAGE INCOME;    AVERAGE INCOMES;    AVERAGE PERFORMANCE;    BETWEEN-GROUP INEQUALITY;   

DOI  :  10.1093/wber/lhi018
RP-ID  :  77498

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This article employs establishedtechniques from the spatial economics literature to identifyregional patterns of income and growth in Mexico and toexamine how they have changed over the period spanned bytrade liberalization and how they may be linked to theincome divergence observed following liberalization. Thearticle first shows that divergence has emerged in the formof several income clusters that only partially correspond totraditional geographic regions. Next, when regions aredefined by spatial correlation in incomes, a south clearlyexists, but the north seems to be restricted to the statesdirectly on the United States (U.S.) border and there is nocenter region. Overall, the principal dynamic of both theincreased spatial dependency and the increased divergencelies not on the border but in the sustained underperformanceof the southern states, starting before the North Americanfree-trade agreement, and to a lesser extent in the superiorperformance of an emerging convergence club in thenorth-center of the country.