Globalization, De-Industrialization and Mexican Exceptionalism 1750-1879

Rafael Dobado González (), Aurora Gómez Galvarriato and Jeffrey Gale Williamson ()

No 12316, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Like the rest of the poor periphery, Mexico had to deal with de-industrialization forces between 1750 and 1913, those critical 150 years when the economic gap between the industrial core and the primary-product-producing periphery widened to such huge dimensions. Yet, from independence to mid-century Mexico did better on this score than did most countries around the periphery. This paper explores the sources of Mexican exceptionalism with de-industrialization. It decomposes those sources into those attributable to productivity events in the core and to globalization forces connecting core to periphery, and to those attributable to domestic forces specific to Mexico. It uses a neo-Ricardian model (with non-tradable foodstuffs) to implement the decomposition, and advocates a price dual approach, and develops a new price and wage data base 1750-1878. There were three forces at work that account for Mexican exceptionalism: first, the terms of trade and Dutch disease effects were much weaker; second, Mexico maintained secular wage competitiveness with the core; and third, Mexico had the autonomy to devise effective ways to foster industry. The first appears to have been the most important.

JEL-codes: F1 N7 O2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-int
Date: 2006-06
Note: DAE ITI
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Working Paper: Globalization, De-Industrialization and Mexican Exceptionalism 1750-1879 (2006)
Working Paper: Globalization, De-Industrialization and Mexican Exceptionalism 1750-1879 (2007)
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