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Adopting a legal definition of informality, this paper studies the causes of informality in general and with a particular application to Mexico. It starts with a discussion on the definition and measures of informality. It then argues and provides evidence that informality is not only a reflection of underdevelopment but may also be the source of further economic retardation. Next, the paper analyzes informality's main determinants, arguing that informality is not single-caused but results from the combination of poor public services, a burdensome regulatory regime, and weak monitoring and enforcement capacity by the state. This combination is especially explosive when the country suffers from low educational achievement and features demographic pressures and primary production structures. The paper then evaluates the empirical relevance of each determinant of informality to the specific case of Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper shows that the evolution of the level of Mexico real and real per capita output between 1895 and 2008 can be adequately described through a trend stationary model, affected by 4 structural breaks, which ocurred at dates that seem to coincide with domestic institutional arrangements, wars, and financial and economic crises. These changes are modeled through logistic smooth transition functions, in which transition periods are endogenously estimated. In terms of growth rates, our results indicate that for Mexico real and real per capita GDP, there are four stationary growth paths, separated by three transition periods. For instance, for real GDP we identify the following stationary growth paths: 1895-1924, 1935- 1952, 1956-1978, and 1989-2008, separated by three transition periods: 1925-1934, 1953-1955, and 1979-1988. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If finance is crucial to growth, as a large literature has demonstrated, then why is there wide variance in financial development across countries? Why have governments not put the appropriate policies into place to encourage the development of banks and securities markets? This paper addresses this question by exploring the development of the Mexican banking system from the 1880s to the present. It argues that the institutions that encourage financial development cannot be created at the stroke of a pen. Rather, the creation of institutions that encourage financial development are dependent upon other institutions that limit the authority and discretion of the government. In short, political institutions that constrain government are a necessary condition for economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]