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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate comparatively the quality of exports from Mexico and South Korea. The indicators used are the following: domestic value-added (va) embodied in exports; decomposition of domestic value-added between direct, generated indirectly exporting activities, and indirect, created in those that produce inputs that are embodied in exports; use of domestic va embodied in exports by the rest of the world, divided between the parts to produce exports and for uses other than exports; domestic employment contained in exports, both for directly and indirectly exporting activities; labor productivity in the export sector in direct and indirect exporting activities; and wages per worker in the export sector, also classified between those that export directly and those that supply inputs to exporting activities. All indicators are broken down by technological level of exports according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (oecd) classification (2011). The data analysis allows us to conclude that, despite the high weight of manufacturing exports, particularly those of high and medium-high technology, in total exports of Korea and Mexico, the quality of these exports of the former is much higher than those of the latter: domestic va contained in their exports (as a percentage of exports) is notably higher; they are more integrated into the global value networks of parts and components; domestic linkages, measured by the indirect jobs they generate, are more intense; and labor productivity and, consequently, wages per employee in export activity are three times higher than in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies the decline of the labor income share (LIS) in Mexico during the 1990-2015 period. The decline is mostly explained by reductions within the economy's major sectors (including manufacturing, tradables, and non-tradables), rather than by a recomposition of value added towards sectors with low labor shares. In contrast to agriculture --where LIS fell due to a shift of labor force from self-employment to wage-employment-- in other major areas of the economy the fall in LIS is explained by reductions within the wage-employment sector. Econometric estimations indicate that parallel declines in the wage share and relative productivity of non-tradables and in the US manufacturing labor share all played a large role in the reduction of the manufacturing wage share in Mexico. More generally, the analysis suggests that the lagging productivity of the economy's informal non-tradable sector --itself a reflection of the country's low aggregate rate of economic growth-- is a crucial factor in the fall of LIS in the formal sectors. The paper concludes by discussing possible explanations for the paradox of the slow rate of economic growth in Mexico despite the rise in the profit share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its beginning the 1980s, the globalized model of economic development in Mexico has generated paradoxical results. On the positive side, Mexico attained a privileged position among the mayor economies of the world by becoming the 13th largest exporter and the 12th main importer, while simultaneously turning into a high-ranking recipient of foreign direct investment. These positive results deeply diverge with the mediocre performance in economic growth and the high levels of unemployment, informality and poverty. In this paper we argue that these paradoxical results are the consequence of structural disequilibrium caused by the reorientation of production towards export-based global value chains, which did not contribute to the development of an integrated industrial sector with forward and backward linkages between foreign and local firms. The flows of trade and investment that were stimulated by the North American Free Trade Agreement (nafta) did not promote economic growth in Mexico because of structural weaknesses that derived from an exporting sector where foreign firms limited the value-added produced by local firms, and created an inelastic supply of imported inputs. Hence, the export-led model became a development strategy that weakened the capacity for the consolidation of a strong and dynamic internal market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]