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With the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexico experienced a rapid expansion in highly industrialized food and beverage products. This has transformed supply and distribution structures and led to changes in dietary patterns. The objective of this paper is to explain how these transformations led to the configuration of a hybrid distribution and consumption scheme that affected the expenditure, frequency and quantities of ultra-processed and fast foods consumed in Mexican households during the period 2000-2020. This hybrid model is associated with an increase in diseases such as obesity and chronic degenerative diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper used a new source of information (ESRU-EMOVI NL) to estimate, for the first time, the lower limit of unequal opportunities in a federal state in Mexico. Using the former criterion concerning unequal opportunities, a lower threshold indicated 35% inequality in economic resources in the state. As at the national level, the main contributors to unequal opportunities in the state are unequal economic resources by origin and parental education. However, in contrast to what has been observed, for the country as a whole, inequalities associated with people's skin tone account for 5% of observed unequal opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the possible role of US trade liberalization in explaining Puerto Rico's deindustrialization. In order to address this issue, time series techniques were used. The results of the Granger Causality Test suggest that the imports made by the US from Mexico, Canada, Ireland, and Costa Rica do not explain Puerto Rico's deindustrialization. Therefore, no causal relationship was found between the imports made by the US from its NAFTA partners and the countries where the corporations that benefited from Section 936 relocated with the deindustrialization of Puerto Rico. Besides, the impulse response exercise suggests that in the first period, deindustrialization explains its variability by 100%, and in the final period, it explains 95.47%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the determinants of the exchange rate based on the portfolio balance model. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL), we empirically evaluate the effect of private net foreign assets and the traditional factors affecting the exchange rate dynamics in Mexico from 1990-2019. The main results suggest that: i) the portfolio approach constitutes a consistent system to explain the behavior of the exchange rate; ii) an increase in economic activity and interest rate differentials triggers an appreciation of the exchange rate; iii) an increase in the inflation gap and private net foreign assets causes a depreciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the evolution of the trilateral trade relationship between Mexico, the United States and China, and its main characteristics, from 1993 to 2020, through the application of vector autoregressive (VAR) models at different points in time. More specifically, trade links between these economies have been transformed from a first phase of little significance to a second phase with profound interrelationships since 2001, and finally to a current consolidation stage, despite the current increasingly complex environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase of mining in certain historical periods can be attributed to the incidence of various factors, such as the price of metals, technological development, and economic and environmental policies. This paper reviews the most important periods of mining development in Mexico, examining in depth the most recent period: the implementation of automation. The majority of social analyses related to mining have focused on the concept of neo-extractivism and have emphasized economic policies and prices. This paper's contribution is a review of the data of the revolution in the mining sector's productive forces. This is an aspect that may be as important as metal prices and the sector's economic policies when seeking to understand the current situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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 analyzes the conditions facing the oil refining industry in Mexico and the factors that shaped its overhaul in the context of the 2013 Energy Reform. To do so, the paper examines the main challenges that refining companies must tackle to stay in the market, evaluating the specific cases of the United States and Canada. Similarly, it offers a diagnosis of refining in Mexico, identifying its principal determinants in order to, finally, analyze its prospects, considering the role of private initiatives in the open market, as well as Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), as a placeholder in those areas where private enterprises do not participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between fiscal and monetary policy coordination and fiscal multipliers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. To do so, we first look at the theoretical framework of the New Consensus Macroeconomics (NCM), and then analyze the trends in the four countries for variables including consumption, investment, government spending, and interest rates. Finally, we present an estimate of the spending and monetary multipliers with proxy variables. The contribution of this paper consists of one, showing the inexistence of the crowding out effect, and two, quantifying the multipliers for the aforementioned countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper calculates the impact of family income on young people's school attendance in Mexico, in a longitudinal context. Based on the rotating panels of the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE), a probit econometric model with fixed effects is used to determine the likelihood that a 14- to 18-year-old who lives with their parents and attends school will continue to attend in the following year; the model is controlled by the young person's characteristics, their family, the environment and various temporary changes. Evidence was found that the probability of a young person continuing to attend school increases with family income, and this positive effect is relatively more important in the first deciles of income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to analyze regional dimensions of food security as a development issue, and its geographic imbalances in Mexico. Through the application of principal component analysis, an index was developed at the municipal and regional level. In addition to combining information for different variables which are consolidated into a single measurement, this index numerically synthesizes three of the four dimensions with which the problem is measured: access, availability and biological utilization. Meanwhile, the Dalenius-Hodges stratification method was used to establish food security ranges at different regional scales. The results show that the socioeconomic and geographic inequalities caused by the development models historically applied in Mexico affect the population's internal food security throughout its regional areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into an analysis of illegality in migration, from a migrant perspective. To do this, established and assimilated historical practices in selected groups of Mexican migrants were analyzed according to immigration status and settlement area. The argument presented here is that illegality has a functional character for the reproduction of the migrant trajectory. This is demonstrated using a comparative analysis of the way migrants' decisions allow them to integrate their trajectories into two contexts which show unequal development. Such integration determines its functionality independently of the existence of restrictive migration policies in nation-state contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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.)

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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.)

Results from studies of the relationship between road infrastructure and regional economic growth have so far been inconclusive. This paper analyzes the effect of the availability of road infrastructure on regional production in Mexican municipalities. At a regional level, the extent of road availability in a municipality was determined using an Geographic Information System (gIS) and ordinary least squares analysis, which identified the existence of a positive relation between road density and production in municipal regions. It was shown that the most significant impact of roads on gross regional production is in the manufacturing and retail sectors, while roads have no significant impact on agriculture, livestock production, fishing, and mining. Toll-free roads in particular afford increased regional benefits in comparison to toll roads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an empirical model drawing on data generated over a decade of analysis, aiming to explain the impact of intellectual property by using patent records as an indicator. The model moreover correlates patenting with economic development and growth in Mexico. The pattern that emerges is a positive tie between greater investment in research and development (R+D) on the one hand, and economic development and growth on the other, manifest in the rising volume of national patent applications. The development and implementation of public policies designed to augment intellectual capital and innovation could benefit an emerging economy like that of Mexico in countless ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to expand the body of knowledge about the situation of and challenges facing the aerospace industry in the state of Sonora, Mexico. To do so, various interviews were conducted with company officials who shared results like the following: the industry has moved toward districts that offer the best conditions to operate; the march of technological flexibility in processes calls for a review of how institutions of higher education in the state are training human capital. Moreover, despite ranking in the country's top five states in aerospace production, the integration of productive value chains still leaves much to be desired, and is concentrated at Level 2 of the supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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 explores the Mexico City Government's accountability with respect to public debt in the time period 1999-2015. The questions we pose are as follows: To which projects were resources emanating from public debt allocated? Did the accountability mechanisms make it possible to evaluate the projects funded with public debt? Although the laws stipulate that entities are bound to be transparent about their allocation of debt, there is clearly only partial accountability when it comes to all of the funding models, including: private banking, development banking, the stock market, and public-private partnerships (PPP). Moreover, the opacity is total where evaluating outcomes is concerned. Using a cointegration test for debt and public investment, we assert that total public debt has some effect on the behavior of public investment in Mexico City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the link between economic growth and state industrial capital stock accumulation using panel data techniques in the time period 1960-2012. The analysis is done in two moments: the age of national industrialization (1960-1982) and the structural reform era (1983-2012). The results point to a long-term relationship in both periods, but with a sign opposite of the expected sign in the latter, suggesting that the deceleration of industrial capital can explain the slowdown over the past three decades. This result is confirmed with the decline of manufacturing, as well as other economic indicators. The causality tests demonstrate two-way causality between the two variables, evincing a virtuous cycle between growth and accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional competitiveness evolves in close parallel to productivity, which, at present, is increasingly tied to creativity and innovation. A range of studies on the theme recognize that the spatial concentration of creativity drives productivity; nevertheless, few have managed to quantify the magnitude of this relationship. Via a stochastic production frontier analysis, this paper evaluates the levels of technical efficiency and productivity found across Mexico's 59 metropolitan regions (mr) and measures the contribution of the creative activities located in each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between the financial instability generated by shortterm capital flows in the absence of control mechanisms and the restrictions facing the implementation of counter-cyclical fiscal policies in the inflation-targeting regime, using as a springboard the recent financial crises in, specifically, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, showing how an increase in the issuance of public bonds to, via interventions in the exchange rate market, sterilize the effects of short-term capital flows on the monetary base is a source of endogenous instability, because this mechanism entails risks for the exchange rate and interest rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was drafted using the Social Competitiveness Index (SCI) compiled by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP-Mexico) to analyze progress and/or backsliding in the areas of healthcare, education, and job income in the Mexican Republic's 32 states over the time period 2005-2014. The aim was also to use panel data techniques to evaluate the relationship between the SCI and public spending, finding that public spending on social issues was negatively related to the SCI (elasticity was -0.5764%). In conjunction with that, it was demonstrated that a lack of social competitiveness existed alongside growth in public spending, leading to the conclusion that the social policy was ineffective, on top of an economic policy that only drove scant growth in production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic opening and the dearth of federal-sponsored sectoral industrial policies pose a novel challenge for subnational governments at the dawn of the new century. This paper will argue that rather than the Mexican state entirely abandoning industrial policy, what really happened was that developmentalist functions were transferred to or appropriated by the subnational level. To do so, two states in the Mexican Republic whose sectoral industrial policies sharply contrast with the federal government-level backpedaling were examined. The literature of "new developmentalism" will serve as the backdrop to this new subnational role in Mexico, marking a divergence from the neoliberal paradigm at the federal level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out to use the bivariate VEC-EGARCH model with constant correlations to analyze the process by which the mean and volatility are transmitted between the crude futures markets and physical oil markets in Mexico. The results point to the existence of bilateral performance information transmission patterns with stronger effects from the futures markets to the physical markets, while the evidence for the effects of bilateral volatility transmission only exists between the oil futures and physical oil markets in Olmeca. The empirical findings are relevant to governmental authorities and consumers because they aid in designing cross-hedging strategies that mitigate exposure to the price risk in Mexican oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the concepts involved in national-regional innovation systems (N-R_I_S) in light of the emergence of knowledge capitalism as a new phase of development, and the neoliberal appropriation of these concepts, pursuant to neoliberalism's position as the predominant development path in this new phase. Against that backdrop, this study looks at the experience of Jalisco, Mexico, the only state that has conceived of and put into practice a development strategy centered on an N-R_I_S and anchored in the electronics-computing and telecommunications sectors, on the neoliberal path the country is following. This study concludes that despite progress made, the fact that public-private partnerships are the main way this strategy operates has prevented the state from gaining a strategic position in the region from the standpoint of developing knowledge capitalism in Mexico and the breach of a "glocalizing" spatiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies four different rural household profiles in Mexico, taking into account assets, income level, and other aspects related to vulnerability. The classification was done using cluster analysis and a sustainable livelihood approach. Our findings show that households diversify the ways they earn a living as one subsistence strategy to deal with the challenges of limited access to markets and physical infrastructure and weather-related damage from hurricanes and droughts. Likewise, rural Mexico is very heterogeneous across regions. This spurs reflection about the pressing need to design the right public policies to address the problems facing each household profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the Innovation Stimulus Program (PEI) in Mexico through its contribution to the Baja California Regional Innovation System (SRI) between 2009 and 2013. Using additional behavior methodologies, we analyzed the within-company effect and the network effect, as well as the degree of connectivity and number of interactions between stakeholders from the worlds of business, science, and government involved in the SRI. The results reveal that by making funding for innovative projects subject to connections between actors from the realms of business and science, the PEI is helping fortify the SRI by incentivizing 15% of its interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out to characterize the business dynamics of the software industries located in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Tijuana, beginning with a survey administered by the authors to 175 companies located in the aforementioned cities in 2014. The literature about this industry in Mexico has tended to favor theoretical approaches to innovation and learning and their subsequent application to local cases. This work relies on the logic of clusters (Porter, 1998) and therefore analyzes relationships with the local market in terms of sales and usage of human, financial, and informational resources, revealing regional differences in business dynamics. One important difference is the weight of local competition in Mexico City as compared with the two other cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financialization has transformed public spending into the guarantor of financial profit. One of the expressions of this process is the partnership between public spending and private capital, which has underpinned the securitization of public assets. In the road sector, structured financing constrains the availability of public resources, permits the emergence of new sources of profit for financial monopolistic capital, and drives up the cost of infrastructure. The objective of this paper is to analyze how public-private partnerships (ppp) operate in the Mexican road sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses an episodic approach to contrast the causes, transmission mechanisms, and policy responses involved in Mexico's two recent major recessions in 2001-2003 and 2008-2009 and explain their different characteristics. Both recessions were derived from speculative bubbles in specific sectors in the United States and engendered analogous episodes in the Mexican economy as a result of a high degree of integration. Even so, the former was longer due to exogenous shocks (terrorist attacks and China's accession to the World Trade Organization (wto)), which exacerbated plummeting manufactures, but the latter more profound due to the effects of the credit collapse. This evidence attests to the limitations of domestic economic policy and the Mexican economy's acute vulnerability to external shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Below, this paper analyzes and identifies some of the determinants that explain cement industry production in Mexico. The objective of this study was to identify the effect of exports and external competition on cement production, as well as internal drivers, such as investment, employment, and overall economic activity. As a function of augmented production, error correction models were estimated. The results indicate that the cement production exchange rate is positively related with exports and negatively with external competition. Overall economic activity showed a strong effect on production. Assuming that the industry operates as an oligopoly, the results imply that there are no incentives to favor the entrance of competitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the behavior of wage inequality in Mexico and the corresponding region along the northern border in the time period 2005-2012. We use a traditional and easy-to-interpret coefficient, the Gini index, which is accurately decomposed using a cooperative game approach, to obtain the causes behind its gradual decline, as the index fell from 0.435 to 0.400 by 2012. The results show that it is within groups - by 70% - that the wage gap has been reduced by type of task in the job position for the border region and by skills for the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business competitiveness has long been a subject of study and debate in the economic literature, which has pointed to various drivers of business development. Drawing on the Industrial Economics, the New Industrial Economics, and the Theory of Resources and Capabilities approaches, this paper sets forth a panel data econometric model with 2 671 Mexican micro-enterprises over four time periods, detailing the relationship between the competitive advantages of micro-enterprises and external and internal factors, such as the sectoral structure and the tangible and intangible assets of the economic unit. The principal results obtained suggest that the synergies needed for the development of the small-scale productive sector are primarily generated by way of intangible capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature has empirically demonstrated that the real exchange rate is essential to explaining the economic evolution of developing countries. It has been empirically proven that the anti-inflation exchange rate policy implemented systematically in Mexico has constituted a major restriction on the country's economic growth, a restriction that has persisted throughout this entire time period, even through different monetary and exchange rate regimes. This paper estimates an svar (1950-2014) that shows how the continuous appreciation of the real exchange rate has curbed Mexico's economic growth capacity and had an impact on other macroeconomic balances. This alone could be considered a highly potent structural macroeconomic reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes State powers over the Mexican electricity industry. The 2013-2014 energy reform replaced the hybrid single buyer model --flawed as a result of excessive government intervention-- with a wholesale electricity market that will gradually be extended to all users. To maximize competition, the State has retained ample and numerous powers to intervene through the Ministry of Energy. The transition from a public monopoly to an open market entails significant risks, which Mexico aims to minimize with strong political authority and a relatively controlled market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how the structure and functioning of the system of cities in Mexico has changed in the framework of the economic models implemented in the country, drawing on the results of spatial interaction models. This article reviews three studies based on data obtained in 1966, 1986, and 2006 through classic gravity models, which permit a comparative analysis that reveals the transition from a hierarchical cities model in the closed-economy model to the emergence of regional-urban systems organized into networks in the midst of trade liberalization. Finally, it reflects on some causal explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro-enterprises have traditionally been considered a burden for development, from both the theoretical perspective of social sciences as well as policy praxis. However, for some years now, some of the specialized literature has presented evidence that despite their low productivity, the contribution of the informal economy to job creation and income in less-developed economies is significant. Given that other countries have begun to develop policies to encourage productivity in the informal sector, the main purpose of this paper is to understand, through a review of the regulations that support micro-enterprises, as well as new decrees and regulations, the current position of Mexico in this debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major oil fields have played an essential role in the global hydrocarbon supply, but the majority are now in decline. The Cantarell macro-reserve has produced significant volumes of hydrocarbons and brought countless benefits to the country, but starting in 2004, the exhaustion of the Cantarell supply began to affect the oil production platform. This research studies all of the factors that have had an impact on the performance of this macro-reserve, which are fundamental to explain the current state of affairs. The conclusion is that the management of the Cantarell oil field was less than optimal during the three time periods identified in the paper, as decisions were made on a nontechnical basis, which contributed to the decline and the series of challenges facing the oil complex today. These difficulties could, in turn, be mitigated through the use of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This topic should be viewed in the context of a few theoretical considerations on local and territorial development. This work will then look at the conclusions of some recent specialized contributions to the study of instability and disparities in Mexico and apply these to the focus of this paper. Studying Yucatan sheds light on the enormous limits and extreme inequalities of development in Mexico and its winding road to growth. Yucatan reflects how Mexico is lagging in employment and education, as well as the extent to which people are leaving rural areas, leading to greater urban concentration. In addition, it provides evidence of an increase in outsourcing, the decline of the maquiladora industry and the departure of local capital from its weak manufacturing sector. This work concludes with a broad critique of this type of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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.)

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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.)

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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.)

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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.)

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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.)

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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.)

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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.)

Copyright of Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas 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.)