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The authors' aim was to isolate and identify bacteria or yeast that may be present on the surface of 20-peso banknotes from the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Mexico. They randomly studied a total of 70 20-peso banknotes for the presence of bacteria and species of Candida by conventional methods. Out of the 70 banknotes, 48 (69%) were found to be contaminated. The most prevalent species observed was Candida kruseii (19 bills, 27%) followed by Burkholderia cepacia (9 bills, 13%); 22 (31%) bills showed no growth. Of the 48 contaminated bills, four (5.7%) yielded bacteria considered pathogenic and the other 44 bills (63%) yielded bacteria considered potentially pathogenic. Eleven bills showed more than one microbial species. The results of the authors' study show that contamination occurs on paper currency in the metropolitan area of Monterrey. The authors' findings provide evidence that currency banknotes may represent a threat to human health.

This article reports on strategies developed by female street vendors (vendedoras ambulantes) in Mexico City to ensure the care of their young children in the absence of a specific and operational government policy to fulfil this need. The information concerning child care and health was gathered by a survey of 426 street traders selected by multi-stage random cluster sampling in four of the administrative districts (delegaciones politicas) of Mexico City during 1990. It was found that, as mothers of young children, street vendors most frequently looked after their children personally on the street or left them with other members of the family. Related factors were availability of alternative child care providers in the family, the age of the children and working conditions of the mother. Children who remained on the streets with their mothers suffered more frequently from gastro-intestinal diseases and accidents than the national average. The incidence of acute respiratory diseases, however, was similar in the cases of maternal care in the street and care by family members in another environment. Existing public health measures show a greater concern for the health of food consumers than that of workers in this area. Current public policy seeks to regulate street vending activities and to concentrate traders in ad hoc areas and facilities. Our research results document the need for actions that can contribute to an improvement in the care and health conditions of these young children.

The Mexican maquiladora industry is applying Lean Manufacturing Tools (LMT) in its production lines; however, few studies have investigated its relationship with sustainability (social, economic, and environmental). This paper presents a second-order structural equation model (SEM) relating 8 LMT integrated into three independent latent variables: continuous improvement (Kaizen and Gemba), supporting tools (Andon, visual management, and Poka-yoke), and machinery and equipment (total productive maintenance, overall equipment effectiveness, and Jidoka) that are related to social, economic, and environmental sustainability as dependent variables. The model is validated with information obtained from 249 companies using partial least squares. Findings show that the application of LMT in the Mexican maquiladora industry avoids the generation of waste and reprocessing. Likewise, the improvement of production processes reduces the waste emitted into the environment and reduces energy consumption. Also, when companies have environmental programs, the work environment is safe, and labor relations are improved, increasing morale and the commitment to work for the company, gaining economic and ecological benefits., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Recent research in the U.S. links trade-induced job displacement to deaths of despair. Should we expect the same mortality response in developing countries? This paper analyzes the effect of a trade-induced negative shock to manufacturing employment on leading causes of mortality in Mexico between 1998 and 2013. I exploit cross-municipality variation in trade exposure based on differences in industry specialization before China's accession to the WTO in 2001 to identify labor-demand shocks that are concentrated in manufacturing. I find trade-induced job loss increased mortality from diabetes, raised obesity rates, reduced physical activity, and lowered access to health insurance. These deaths were offset by declines in mortality from ischemic heart disease and chronic pulmonary disease. These findings highlight that negative employment shocks have heterogeneous impacts on mortality in developing countries, where falling incomes lead to less access to health care and nutritious food, but also reduce alcohol and tobacco use., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The author has no relevant financial or non-financial interested to disclose., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Mexican wage inequality rose following Mexico’s accession to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization in 1986. Since the mid-1990s, however, wage inequality has been falling. Since most trade models suggest that output prices can affect factor prices, this paper explores the relationship between output prices and wage inequality. A Salter–Swan trade model with firm heterogeneity driven by variations in the relative price of tradable relative to non-tradable goods can explain the decline in wage inequality. The paper compares this model’s predictions with Mexican inequality statistics using data on output prices, census data, and quarterly household survey data. In spite of the model’s simplicity, the model’s predictions match Mexican variables reasonably well during the years when wage inequality fell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) included novel rules for wine and spirits requiring parties to allow wine and spirits importers to display information required by the importing country on a supplementary label rather than on the standard label. Since the TPP negotiations concluded, alcohol-specific supplementary labelling rules have begun to appear in other trade agreements. The aim of this paper was to map the new instruments containing these rules and examine developments in the rules with implications for health information on alcohol containers., Design and Methods: Trade agreements signed after the TPP negotiations concluded were retrieved and searched for alcohol-specific labelling provisions. A legal analysis of these provisions and related exceptions was undertaken., Results: Supplementary labelling rules similar or identical to those in the TPP have been included in five subsequent trade agreements. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement also includes several additional provisions about alcohol labelling. Exceptions in the agreements provide some space for governments to defend labelling measure that might otherwise breach the rules, in the event of a dispute., Discussion and Conclusions: By securing these rules, the alcohol industry is better positioned to claim the space on the standard label as industry 'real estate' and to oppose mandatory health information incorporated into the standard labelling. These risks can be mitigated by stemming the adoption of supplementary labelling rules in further trade agreements; clarifying the text of agreements and ensuring that regulators understand that the rules do not prevent the use of 'best-practice' warning labels., (© 2020 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.)

Copyright of Araucaria is the property of Araucaria-Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofia, Politica y Humanidades and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Aims: This paper presents updated prevalence estimates of awareness, ever-use, and current use of nicotine vaping products (NVPs) from 14 International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project) countries that have varying regulations governing NVP sales and marketing., Design, Setting, Participants and Measurements: A cross-sectional analysis of adult (≥ 18 years) current smokers and ex-smokers from 14 countries participating in the ITC Project. Data from the most recent survey questionnaire for each country were included, which spanned the period 2013-17. Countries were categorized into four groups based on regulations governing NVP sales and marketing (allowable or not), and level of enforcement (strict or weak where NVPs are not permitted to be sold): (1) most restrictive policies (MRPs), not legal to be sold or marketed with strict enforcement: Australia, Brazil, Uruguay; (2) restrictive policies (RPs), not approved for sale or marketing with weak enforcement: Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand; (3) less restrictive policies (LRPs), legal to be sold and marketed with regulations: England, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea, United States; and (4) no regulatory policies (NRPs), Bangladesh, China, Zambia. Countries were also grouped by World Bank Income Classifications. Country-specific weighted logistic regression models estimated adjusted NVP prevalence estimates for: awareness, ever/current use, and frequency of use (daily versus non-daily)., Findings: NVP awareness and use were lowest in NRP countries. Generally, ever- and current use of NVPs were lower in MRP countries (ever-use = 7.1-48.9%; current use = 0.3-3.5%) relative to LRP countries (ever-use = 38.9-66.6%; current use = 5.5-17.2%) and RP countries (ever-use = 10.0-62.4%; current use = 1.4-15.5%). NVP use was highest among high-income countries, followed by upper-middle-income countries, and then by lower-middle-income countries., Conclusions: With a few exceptions, awareness and use of nicotine vaping products varied by the strength of national regulations governing nicotine vaping product sales/marketing, and by country income. In countries with no regulatory policies, use rates were very low, suggesting that there was little availability, marketing and/or interest in nicotine vaping products in these countries where smoking populations are predominantly poorer. The higher awareness and use of nicotine vaping products in high income countries with moderately (e.g. Canada, New Zealand) and less (e.g. England, United States) restrictive policies, is likely due to the greater availability and affordability of nicotine vaping products., (© 2019 The Authors. Addiction published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for the Study of Addiction.)

In 2014, an 8% tax on energy-dense nutrient-poor foods was implemented in Mexico with the aim of reducing its consumption. This paper estimated changes in household purchases of taxed food. We used the latest five waves of the nationally representative Mexican Income and Expenditure Survey (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016). The analytic sample comprises 154,777 households. We estimated changes in purchases based on a before and after comparison. Results show a reduction in purchases of taxed food of -5.4 g/week per capita, equivalent to a relative reduction of -5.3% in the 2014 and 2016 waves compared to the 2008, 2010 and 2012 rounds. The largest relative reductions were in urban areas (-6.9%), among households with children (-7.0%), households where the head had an intermediate educational level (-9.9%) and the southern region (-14.8%). We did not find a significant reduction in rural areas. While there is a large heterogeneity, the fiscal instrument has been effective in reducing taxed food purchases and has generated substantial revenue that could be used to finance policies for the prevention and treatment of obesity., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Government based Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) have been criticized for not maximizing environmental effectiveness through appropriate targeting, while instead prioritizing social side-objectives. In Mexico, existing literature on how the Payments for Ecosystem Services-Hydrological program (PSA-H) has targeted deforestation and forest degradation shows that both the process of identifying the eligible areas and the choice of the selection criteria for enrolling forest parcels have been under the influence of competing agendas. In the present paper we study the influence of the PSA-H multi-level governance on the environmental effectiveness of the program–the degree to which forest at high risk of deforestation is enrolled- building from a “policyscape” framework. In particular, we combine governance analysis with two distinct applications of the policyscape framework: First, at national level we assess the functional overlap between the PSA-H and other environmental and rural programs with regard to the risk of deforestation. Second, at regional level in the states of Chiapas and Yucatan, we describe the changing policy agenda and the role of technical intermediaries in defining the temporal spatialization of the PSA-H eligible and enrolled areas with regard to key socio-economic criteria. We find that, although at national level the PSA-H program has been described as coping with both social and environmental indicators thanks to successful adaptive management, our analysis show that PSA-H is mainly found in communities where deforestation risk is low and in combination with other environmental programs (protected areas and forest management programs). Such inertia is reinforced at regional level as a result of the eligible areas’ characteristics and the behaviour of technical intermediaries, which seek to minimise transaction costs and sources of uncertainty. Our project-specific analysis shows the importance of integrating the governance of a program in the policyscape framework as a way to better systematize complex interactions at different spatial and institutional scales between policies and landscape characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexico has become the sixth-largest dry chili exporter in the world and the largest chili (Capsicum annuum L) exporter, showing not only its production capacity but also giving it a decisive advantage over its main competitors. The aim of this paper is to describe the competitive structure and dynamics of chili exportations in Mexico over the period 1993-2008. In order to compare the export growth performance with the performance of similar exporter countries, we look at the behavior of the Revealed Export Advantage index and the Constant Market Share Analysis. For all countries included in the analysis, the study considers the U.S as the objective market due to the current dry chili export market participation. The result suggests that Mexico occupies an important place in the global production but not a leadership place in exportations of dry chili at worldwide level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian & Latin American Economic History is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper uses changes in intra-industry specialization indicators to assess factor adjustment pressures that may have been experienced by U.S. industries as a result of growth in U.S.-Mexico trade over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) implementation period. Many industries experienced large increases in intra-industry trade. Few U.S. industries were candidates for significant factor adjustment pressures. Industries facing adjustment pressures accounted for nineteen percent of total U.S. imports from Mexico. Findings should lessen opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement and future regional integration initiatives in the Western Hemisphere by easing fears that jobs will disappear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014 an excise tax to non-alcoholic sweetened beverages (SSB) was implemented in Mexico. The objective of this paper is to study whether and to what degree these taxes passed-through onto SSB prices in urban areas overall and by region, type of beverage and package size. Prices were obtained from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography from 2011 to 2014. We applied a pre-post quasi-experimental approach using fixed effects models. In sensitivity analysis we applied other model specifications to test the robustness of the findings and we also present weighted estimations based on household purchases. The dependent variables are real prices of a specific beverage category; the main independent variables are dummies for each month of 2014, and the models adjust for time trends and seasonality. Results suggest that the SSB tax passed along to consumers for all SSBs and we found overshifting for the carbonated SSBs. A greater effect is seen among the small package sizes, and we see heterogeneous effects by region. Estimating the effect of the tax on prices is important to understand the potential effect on consumption.

In this paper, I address the case of a corporate society in Central Mexico. After volcanic eruptions triggered population displacements in the southern Basin of Mexico during the first and fourth centuries A.D., Teotihuacan became a multiethnic settlement. Groups from different backgrounds settled primarily on the periphery of the metropolis; nevertheless, around the core, intermediate elites actively fostered the movement of sumptuary goods and the arrival of workers from diverse homelands for a range of specialized tasks. Some of these skilled craftsmen acquired status and perhaps economic power as a result of the dynamic competition among neighborhoods to display the most lavish sumptuary goods, as well as to manufacture specific symbols of identity that distinguished one neighborhood from another, such as elaborate garments and headdresses. Cotton attire worn by the Teotihuacan elite may have been one of the goods that granted economic importance to neighborhood centers such as Teopancazco, a compound that displayed strong ties to the Gulf Coast where cotton cloth was made. The ruling elite controlled raw materials that came from afar whereas the intermediate elite may have been more active in providing other sumptuary goods: pigments, cosmetics, slate, greenstone, travertine, and foreign pottery. The contrast between the corporate organization at the base and top of Teotihuacan society and the exclusionary organization of the neighborhoods headed by the highly competitive intermediate elite introduced tensions that set the stage for Teotihuacan's collapse.

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the food landscape of Texas using the CDC's Modified Retail Food Environment (mRFEI) and to make comparisons by border/non-border., Methods: The Modified Retail Food Environment index (mRFEI (2008)) is an index developed by the CDC that measures what percent of the total food vendors in a census track sell healthy food. The range of values is 0 (unhealthy areas with limited access to fruits and vegetables) to (100-Healthy). These data were linked to 2010 US Census socioeconomic and ethnic concentration data. Spatial analysis and GIS techniques were applied to assess the differences between border and non-border regions. Variables of interest were mRFEI score, median income, total population, percent total population less than five years, median age, % receiving food stamps, % Hispanic, and % with a bachelor degree., Results: Findings from this study reveal that food environment in Texas tends to be characteristic of a "food desert". Analysis also demonstrates differences by border/non-border location and percent of the population that is foreign born and by percent of families who receive food stamps., Conclusions: Identifying the relationship between socioeconomic disparity, ethnic concentration and mRFEI score could be a fundamental step in improving health in disadvantage communities, particularly those on the Texas-Mexico border.

This paper aims at exploring trade opportunities between Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey, presently members of MIKTA, by comparing their respective Macroeconomic and socioeconomic variables. We use the GDP per capita as a key indicator of productivity and market size to see which MIKTA members are similar and therefore have a potential to set trade and business projects among them. To do that we conducted an ANOVA test and skiped Australia and South Korea of the analysis due to their high income per capita. We then focused on Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey, whose economies proved to be equivalent and compared their key macroeconomic and social indicators, outstanding their most competitive sectors, commodities, foreign trade, and trade partners. A total of 87 observations were rated from one to three to identify which country was better. Mexico scored 205 points followed by Indonesia with 164 and Turkey, 153 points. Finally, we ran a second ANOVA test, taking the value of all observations in a logarithmic scale to prove that in spite of the different scores, the mean of the three countries was equal. The results are relevant as the three of them present a wide business scope to be exploited, which could allow them to lead the MIKTA in the coming decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of IBEROAMERICANA. América Latina - España - Portugal is the property of Vervuert Verlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: More than twelve temperate-inhabitant Mexican ethnic groups are considered to be mycophilic and to have extensive traditional mycological knowledge. In contrast, inhabitants of tropical lands have been studied only superficially and their mycological knowledge is less well known. In this paper, we report the results of an ethnomycological research in markets of a wide area of the Mexican tropics. Our aims were to describe the dynamics related to the traditional selling process of wild mushrooms and to determine the tendencies of informants toward mushrooms (mycophily vs. mycophoby)., Methods: We visited 25 markets of 12 different settlements in the states of Oaxaca, Tabasco and Veracruz and collected information by participant observation as well as by 291 non-structured and semi-structured interviews., Results: Mushroom selling was observed in four towns in Oaxaca and in two in Tabasco. Women represented 81.82% of sellers, while indigenous people (Chinantecos, Chontales, Ch'oles and Zoques) comprised 68.18%. Mushroom commercialization took place in secondary mobile markets and only in peasant stands. Mushroom collectors gather the resource in places with secondary vegetation, farmed areas and cattle fields. Because of land tenure restrictions mushroom sellers did not normally collect mushrooms themselves. In Oaxaca, we observed economic dynamics not based on capitalism, such as exchange, reciprocity and barter., Conclusion: The sale of some wild edible mushrooms, the large amounts of commercialization of Schizophyllum commune, the complicated intermediary process, as well as the insertion of mushrooms into different informal economic practices are all evidence of an existent mycophily in a sector of the population of this region of the Mexican tropics. Among our informants, urban mestizo people were mycophobic, rural mestizo people were non-mycophilic and indigenous people were true mycophilic.

Petrographic analysis of Formative Mexican ceramics by J. B. Stoltman et al. (see the companion piece in this issue of PNAS) refutes a recent model of Olmec "one-way" trade. In this paper, we address the model's more fundamental problems of sampling bias, anthropological implausibility, and logical non sequiturs. No bridging argument exists to link motifs on pottery to the social, political, and religious institutions of the Olmec. In addition, the model of unreciprocated exchange is implausible, given everything that the anthropological and ethnohistoric records tell us about non-Western societies of that general sociopolitical level.

Copyright of Foro Internacional is the property of El Colegio de Mexico AC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstracts of the articles in the issue are presented on topics including 16th century Spanish Catholic missionaries, international trade between New Spain and Castile, Spain, and Indian delegates sent from Tlaxcala to represent New Spain in front of the Spanish Monarchy during the 16th century.

This paper discusses the growth slowdown of the Mexican economy during the reform and post reform periods. It addresses four possible factors behind the growth deceleration. First, the role of international trade integration, showing that the trade policy reforms of the 1980s and 1990s were in fact very successful in enhancing export growth and trade openness but not in promoting a dynamic pattern of trade specialization. Second, the productivity growth slowdown, arguing that this should be seen as a consequence rather than a cause of the growth deceleration as the evolution of productivity growth is closely associated with the expansion of tertiary underemployment. Third, the discussion of the role of human capital formation suggests that educational and health indicators have been improving during the recent period, partly as a consequence of the demographic bonus, and cannot be held responsible for the fall in output per worker that has taken place since the early 1980s. Finally, the paper focuses on what it believes is the primary determinant of the growth slowdown, the low rate of physical capital accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the growing internationalization of the US economy, a literature has developed on the impacts of globalization on US industries and regions. In this paper we look at four MSAs that have a long history of integration with Mexico and test how their overall business cycles are connected to those of the broader economies that surround them. As globalization increases in the US, the lessons learned from these MSAs can be useful for cities trying to understand how globalization may impact them in the future. Results suggest that the border MSAs are significantly integrated with the broader economies that surround them but that the integration varies based on the structure of the local economy. Border MSAs that have large retail sectors that sell to Mexican nationals are more integrated with the Mexican economy, while El Paso, which has a close relationship with the maquiladora sector in Juarez, is more integrated with the US and Texas economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residents of Mayapan produced and consumed metal artifacts through long-distance commercial exchange networks in the Postclassic Mesoamerican world system. In this paper, I perform a stylistic and typological analysis of metal artifacts and debris from lost-wax casting from recent excavations at Mayapan, with reference to previously excavated collections by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC. The distribution of metal artifacts suggests that metal objects were not sumptuary goods restricted to elites, but luxury goods availble to those who could afford them. I then compare Mayapan with other sites in the Postclassic Mesoamerican world system that were involved in the interregional distribution of metal artifacts. Although Mayapan did not have local sources of native metal or a longstanding traditions of metalworking, it was able to use its economic influence in the world system to obtain and create metal objects specific to its needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic effects of NAFTA on Mexico have been discussed and measured mostly in terms of its effect on employment on both sides of the border and by the increase in Mexico-US trade and investments before and after NAFTA. These are the wrong ways to measure the effects of a free trade area on a member state. In this paper, I will first discuss the theoretically correct method of evaluating the economic effects of the formation of a free trade area in general and then apply this method to correctly measure the effects of NAFTA on Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse data on 523 commercial French agents established in Mexico that were registered in the "Indicateur General de l'Industrie et du Commerce Francais pour l'exportation et l'importation", published in Paris since 1892 by Engineer and Businessman F. Bianconi. Two consular reports from 1892-1893 were filed and secured by descendants of Honorary Consul of the French Legation in Puebla. One of the main topics discussed in this paper is the fact that "Free-Trade Imperialism" by French Businessmen was the result of regional and national capital accumulation and social and political networks of these residents inside Mexico, than an active foreign French imperialist policy as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies factors affecting the implementation of electronic commerce in Mexico and the solutions that companies have developed. Using theories of institutional economics and the resource-based theory of the firm as a framework of analysis, this paper focuses on the rules of behavior that have prevailed in Mexican business transactions and are likely to affect the adoption of electronic commerce. The paper covers infrastructure, supply, and demand factors. It concludes that even though the economic conditions are improving it will be some time before people change their behavior to embrace electronic commerce more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the commercial relationship between Cuba and Mexico in the 1990s. Recent investment and trade are analyzed in the context of the diplomatic and commercial history which has developed between the two countries since the Cuban revolution. This study also considers factors that have led to a decrease of Mexican trade and investment in Cuba in the late 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The three countries that have signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have focused particular interest and concern on the potential impact that this agreement will have on the environmental health, based on the premise that economical development should not detriment neither the environment nor the human health. In this paper, the NAFTA is presented as an opportunity to improve environmental and occupational health in Mexico and assumes that the study of the potential impact of NAFTA could help to find the solutions of the former and actual environmental health problems. From this perspective, the north-border maquila industry is analyzed as a case study for the purpose of identifying and predicting the impact of NAFTA on environmental and the occupational health. Preventive as well as control measurements are suggested. The general characteristics of the U.S.-Mexico border and the maquila industry are presented. The lack of both social investment and urban planning along with population and economical growth are described. An explanation of the impact that these factors have had on the environmental and occupational problems is discussed. Special emphasis is given to the human health problems including that of water, air and soil contamination by industrial toxic residues. Also, some possible health impact of NAFTA are outlined. Finally a sustainable developmental intervention is suggested, based on NAFTA as an opportunity to take advantage of coming structural changes that will improve the environmental health conditions at the northern-border and in the entire country.

In this paper are discussed essential issues about the concept, characteristics and general functions of sanitary regulation, as well as the principles and main lines of action contained in the Program of Modernization of the Sanitary Regulation, which is being implemented by the Ministry of Health of Mexico. In addition, some considerations are offered regarding the supporting role of such a program, in the context of the free trade era that Mexico is undergoing. After 40 years of an outdated sanitary regulation based in a non-functional licensing concept, the new and improved scheme relies on several ammendments to the General Health Law. Thus, the present approach, focuses on a set of flexible, simple and efficient rules, strengthened by proven scientific and technical procedures.

This paper discusses recent trends concerning the commercialization of pesticides in Mexico and focuses on organophosphates and their potential health risk impact. It points out the existing lack of knowledge on health effects associated to chronic exposure to organophosphate pesticides. A need for both toxicological and epidemiologic studies of chronic exposure is identified. Regulatory programs for pesticides in Mexico and the United States are also compared. The paper also addresses the possibility of effective enforcement of environmental and health regulations in Mexico as a result of more rigorous surveillance under NAFTA.

Abstract: This study contributes with original empirical evidence on the distributional and welfare effects of one of the most important health policies implemented by the Mexican government in the last decade, the Seguro Popular de Salud (SPS). We analyze the effect of SPS on households’ welfare using a decomposable index that considers insured and uninsured households’ response to out-of-pocket (OOP) payments using both social welfare weights and inequality aversion. The disaggregation of the welfare index allows us to explore the heterogeneity of the SPS impact on households’ welfare. We applied propensity score matching to reduce the self-selection bias of being SPS insured. Overall results suggest non-conclusive results of the impact of SPS on households’ welfare. When we disaggregated the welfare index by different sub-population groups, our results suggest that households’ beneficiaries of SPS with older adults or living in larger cities are better protected against OOP health care payments than their uninsured counterparts. However, no effect was found among SPS-insured households living in rural and smaller cities, which is a result that could be attributed to limited access to health resources in these regions. Scaling up health insurance coverage is a necessary but not sufficient condition to ensure the protection of SPS coverage against financial risks among the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the recent Mexico experience in the opening to competition in networks infrastructure mainly in the telecommunications sector. In spite of deregulation and privatization policies in the recent past, there are threats coming from regulatory failures which create obstacles in the process of maximizing the competition scope. The path from State-operation to “managed competition” leads to a deficient competition environment due to the excessive authority oversight, which make costly future, more ambitious, deregulation efforts. The paper focus on interconnection policy between the public telephone network operator and the new long distance carriers, and explore related provisions in natural gas and railroads. Also, it focus on spectrum policy allocation and the role of the new antitrust authority and the specialized regulatory agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a model of international rent-seeking activities by producers in both exporting and importing nations. The model is applied to the winter vegetable trade between the United States and Mexico. An analysis is made of the attempts to form export/import coalitions. Reasons for these failures are given. Due to past failures to impede trade, essentially free trade in winter vegetables between the two countries exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We offer an ethnographic description of the circulation of vegetables on the border between Mexico and Guatemala. These goods move from one country to the other through ant-style piecemeal trafficking on misdirected paths: they enter constantly as contraband in small quantities, using tolerated border crossings. The objective is to show how the interactions between the border actors involved construct a local order that is different from that of the State's normative parameters. An order is founded on a series of unwritten rules that govern the practices of crossing, thereby creating an "interpretive community." This paper clarifies why the operating personnel from different levels of the Mexican government charged with overseeing trade are not outside of this community but rather compose an important part of it and how the State is empirically constructed within it, starting from the idea that the State is not an all-encompassing and coherent entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the territorial effects of a Program geared to alleviating poverty, called Oportunidades. This is done by looking at the consequences of cash transfers of this program in an ethnic settlement, La Concordia, in the State of Guerrero, Mexico. A semi-structured questionnaire was the research instrument useful to interrogate key actors of the local commercial sector about demand-offer trends in La Concordia. We firstly describe the socio- economic characteristics of Ayutla, its role in the dynamic of the regional economy and the type of commercial activity present in county seat and smaller villages, most of which have a predominant indian population. We go on to explain the transformations derived from the type and kind of commercial activity produced by Oportunidades in La Concordia, during the days when cash transfers occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a new database of all patents issues in Mexico between 1870 and 1911, this paper explores the impact of the vast wave of technology imports into Mexico during the nineteenth century period of globalization. Historians have established that massive technology imports made possible sustained economic growth and early industrialization during this period, but have not systematically explored the degree to which the skills and know-how embodied in new imported technologies stimulated adaptive and inventive activity in Mexico. Did imported technologies stimulate local technological creativity, or were Mexican technicians largely isolated from the adoption and use of imported techniques? The evidence shows that imports did stimulate patenting activity by Mexicans, although this response was modest in relation to increased patenting by inventors from North Atlantic countries. In general, Mexican inventors focused on activities outside the core technical advances on the global frontier, and often on activities that were more entrepreneurial than technical, although we can observe several important exceptions. These findings support the argument that technological capabilities were scarce in Mexico and local technicians had few opportunities to engage with and learn from imported know-how. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2000s decade represented a turning point in the increasing inequality trend that had been observed in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century. This paper offers an analysis of the association between these shifts and short-, medium- and long-term factors. For our exploration we assemble a database on income distribution indicators systematically calculated directly from household surveys with emphasis on within-country consistency, methodology, definitions and coverage for the 1980–2013 years. This database allows observing clearly that the increases in inequality throughout the 1980s and 1990s decades have been counteracted by the improvements in the 2000s and the initial years of the 2010 decades. From our econometric exploration we find that (a) while there are short-term forces that are associated with underlying improvements in the distribution—including human capital accumulation and declines in the population dependency rate, (b) medium-term factors that could have been inequality-increasing in the past ameliorated their effect in the 2000s years—namely, the effect of the trade reforms of the 1980s which faded away toward the end of the past century and (c) there are two short-term forces that might have played an important progressive role during the 2000s years, but that could shift in the opposite direction in the near future—namely, the improvement in terms of trade and the declining returns to schooling. Thus, we conclude that the improvement in income distribution in the region could be only a temporary phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyzes processes of interaction, tension, conflict and economic interests in one of the major border areas between Mexico and Guatemala. Informal transborder trade involves several actors who have been building these processes pursuant to agency initiatives. From a conceptual perspective, supported by the dialectical relationship between the notions of a border the behavior of transborder actors, it is concluded that in the study area, an informal border-trade integration process has developed and its actors transcend the border, rendering that border permissive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article discusses the Mexican attorney and legislator Sr. Licenciado don Manuel Simón de Escudero's diplomatic mission from Chihuahua City, Mexico along the Santa Fe Trail to Washington, D.C. in 1825. An overview of the Santa Fe, New Mexico trade, including the competition over New Mexican trade between the Chihuahua state, Mexico and Missouri, is provided. The role that the U.S. Indian agent Benjamin O'Fallon played in securing the U.S.-Mexico border region of the Santa Fe Trail from Indian attacks is discussed. The role that the New Mexican Governor Bartolomé Baca played in sending Escudero to represent him in the U.S. is also discussed.

Copyright of Historia Mexicana is the property of El Colegio de Mexico AC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

China and Mexico embarked, around the early 1980s, on the process of liberalization of trade and FDI and established some export oriented industries through assembly operations with the help of FDI. Both countries had the same objective of increasing value added in export processing industries. The authors examine the comparative achievements of their common objectives in the light of the export oriented strategy hypothesis. Applying the indicators of Revealed Comparative Advantage to exports and imports, the authors show that while there are some similarities in the performance of the two countries, there are also striking differences. Both have managed to increase manufactured exports, particularly in IT products, significantly during 1990s. Both, but particularly China, have developed comparative advantage in export and production of many industries, which had been initiated through import substitution. However, Mexico has achieved little, compared with China, in increasing value added in exports and in developing comparative advantage in production in assembly operations. Further, unlike China, since the early years of the 2010 decade it has not been able to sustain its rapid export growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Foro Internacional is the property of El Colegio de Mexico AC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)