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This paper aims to simulate total factor productivity, following the original proposal made by Cobb and Douglas (1928). Estimates with annual frequency are computed for the United States during two periods, i.e. 1899-1992 and 1933-2019. In the case of Mexico, estimates are computed for the 1993-2015 period. An income distribution in favor of capital in recent decades is found both for the United States and México. Capital share has grown in the United States from 25% in 1899-1922 to 89% in 1993-2019, while for Mexico it has been 82% for 1993-2015. Functional income distribution requires close monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought monitoring and early detection have improved greatly in recent decades through the development and refinement of numerous indices and indicators. However, a lack of guidance, based on user experience, exists as to which drought-monitoring tools are most appropriate in a given location. This review paper summarizes the results of targeted user engagement and the published literature to improve the understanding of drought across North America and to enhance the utility of drought-monitoring tools. Workshops and surveys were used to assess and make general conclusions about the perceived performance of drought indicators, indices and impact information used for monitoring drought in the five main Köppen climate types (Tropical, Temperate, Continental, Polar Tundra, Dry) found across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. In Tropical, humid Temperate, and southerly Continental climates, droughts are perceived to be more short-term (less than 6 months) in duration rather than long-term (more than 6 months). In Polar Tundra climates, Dry climates, Temperate climates with dry warm seasons, and northerly Continental climates, droughts are perceived to be more long-term than short-term. In general, agricultural and hydrological droughts were considered to be the most important drought types. Drought impacts related to agriculture, water supply, ecosystem, and human health were rated to be of greatest importance. Users identified the most effective indices and indicators for monitoring drought across North America to be the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) (or another measure of precipitation anomaly), followed by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (or another satellite-observed vegetation index), temperature anomalies, crop status, soil moisture, streamflow, reservoir storage, water use (demand), and reported drought impacts. Users also noted the importance of indices that measure evapotranspiration, evaporative demand, and snow water content. Drought indices and indicators were generally thought to perform equally well across seasons in Tropical and colder Continental climates, but their performance was perceived to vary seasonally in Dry, Temperate, Polar Tundra, and warmer Continental climates, with improved performance during warm and wet times of the year. The drought indices and indicators, in general, were not perceived to perform equally well across geographies. This review paper provides guidance on when (time of year) and where (climate zone) the more popular drought indices and indicators should be used. The paper concludes by noting the importance of understanding how drought, its impacts, and its indicators are changing over time as the climate warms and by recommending ways to strengthen the use of indices and indicators in drought decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper finds that minimum wages of the United States and Mexico measured carefully in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) help explain the well-documented post-2010 fall in Mexico-U.S. migration. Declining inequality also plays a role since the purchasing power of the minimum wage increased relative to the average wage in Mexico. Using time-series data, we find two positive partial correlations between minimum wages and net migration: one driven by wage differentials between the two countries and the other by wage inequality in Mexico. However, these results are found to be mediated through migrant social networks. Though relative wages are a classic migration driver, this paper is the first to explore the full minimum-average wage nexus. One clear policy implication of these results is that maintaining the real purchasing power of minimum wages helps reduce migration. An in-depth analysis is needed to demonstrate the causality of these correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the progress of ongoing research into the migrant caravans in Mexico or the exoduses of displaced Central Americans taking place since 2011, but which intensified in 2018. Their presence challenges the grammar of narrating and practising specific forms of migration governmentality, while at the same time forming a kind of migrant self-defence or insurrection, whose main characteristics are walking en masse, without coyotes or legal permission, and along paths controlled by migration agents colluding with organised crime who continue to exercise an "indirect private government". In short, this paper is a reflection on the results obtained from the ongoing research, which is mainly genealogical and historical in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to examine what are the methods used by Mexican drug cartels to recruit migrant smugglers and which are the activities carried by former migrant smugglers in these organizations. A qualitative methodology was used, consistent in the realization, between 2011 and 2015, of interviews with 107 migrant smugglers (105 men and 2 women). This paper concludes that after 2013, there has been an increase of recruitment of migrant smugglers by drug cartels without coercion, and that the activities carried out by them are increasingly violent. [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]

This paper analyzes the school insertion of American born minors of Mexican origin in the state of Oaxaca. This is one of the Mexican states which is most affected by the return of Mexican migrants due to the tightening of the Trump administration's immigration policy. The results presented in this study have been obtained through a qualitative methodology in which the techniques of participant and non-participant observation, interviews, discussion groups and documentary analysis have been used. The target population is made up of American students between twelve and seventeen years old, enrolled in middle schools and in higher secondary schools. The findings show the presence of different elements of exclusion -such as the absence of diagnostic tests and programs for teaching Spanish and for leveling study content learning. The above causes that these children go through differentiated school trajectories due to their immigration status, which causes social and educational exclusion, and has important consequences for their present and future life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the need for a new analytical framework to reach a thorough understanding of the outcomes of unequal trade integration, in North America and beyond. To achieve this goal, it was divided in four main sections: the deconstruction of the orthodox argument of free trade areas; the assessment of the contrasting outcomes of NAFTA; an overview of relevant literature; and the delineation of an interdisciplinary agenda. The hypothesis is that the lack of theoretical certainty is due, in parts, to the causal opening of the object of study and to the scarce interaction of specialties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the social right to health of a group of Mexicans deported in the context of their migration between Mexico and the US. Based on 20 semi-structured interviews with deportees living in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, it explores the search for medical care and access to healthcare services during a migratory trajectory conformed of three stages: destination, interception and return. The results emerge from a dual experience, first, as irregular immigrants in the United States and, later, as deportees in Mexico. The right to health was partially exercised in both national contexts with health systems and policies that exclude, either on purpose or by omission, irregular immigrants and deportees. The period of residence or absence, as well as family networks, acted as antagonistic factors encouraging or inhibiting access to health, according to the migratory stage analyzed. This right was typically exercised during medical emergencies caused mainly by accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a qualitative methodology that includes in-depth interviews with one hundred migrant smugglers. This study was conducted between April 2008 and July 2012, and examines the transformation of migrant smuggling between Mexico and the United States in the context of restrictive migratory policies. The paper concludes that Mexican migrant smugglers have lost independence, because now they have to pay multiple bribes and they need the sponsorship of US employers to conduce undocumented immigrants from their place of origin to the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study power generation and demand arematched through a least-costmix of renewable energy (RE) resources and storage technologies for North America by 2030. The study is performed using an hourly resolved model based on a linear optimization algorithm. The geographical, technical and economic potentials of different forms of RE resources enable the option of building a super grid between different North American regions. North America (including the U.S., Canada and Mexico in this paper), is divided into 20 sub-regions based on their population, demand, area and electricity grid structure. Four scenarios have been evaluated: region-wide, country-wide, area-wide and an integrated scenario. The levelised cost of electricity is found to be quite attractive in such a system, with the range from 63/MWhel in a decentralized case and 42/MWhel in a more centralized and integrated scenario. Electrical grid interconnections significantly reduce the storage requirement and overall cost of the energy system. Among all RE resources, wind and solar PV are found to be the least-cost options and hence the main contributors to fossil fuel substitution. The results clearly show that a 100% RE-based system is feasible and a real policy option at a modest cost. However, such a tremendous transition will not be possible in a short time if policy-makers, energy investors and other relevant organizations do not support the proposed system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of labor income prior to migration on the income obtained by migrants in the destination economy, in the case of temporary Mexican migrants in the United States. The data used comes from the Emif Norte survey conducted between 1999 and 2009. High relative and absolute mobility is observed. Hourly income is multiplied by a factor of four in the destination economy, while the effect of a 10 % increase in labor income in Mexico results in less than a 1 % increase in labor income in the United States. The results show that labor income in Mexico has little predictive power for the job performance of Mexican migrants in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The creation of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), that the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) are currently negotiating, will have a major impact on world trade, especially in third-country economies with greater dependence on any of the signatoring countries, as it is the case of Mexico. Methods: This paper analyses the effects of this trade agreement on the exports of the Mexican manufacturing sectors through the application of a model of multiple gravity equations in two possible scenarios (ambitious and limited TTIP). Results: Findings show significant drops of Mexican manufacturing exports and a weakening of its role in the global value chains, especially in those sectors where the EU has significant competitive advantages in its trade with the US. Furthermore, the estimated impacts show that the trade diversion effects would be particularly relevant in those industries with high dependence on exports to the US market, such as machinery and transport equipments. Conclusions: The update of the trade agreements between Mexico and the US and the EU could mitigate the potential negative effects of TTIP, provided that this update leads to an approximation to the standards set for European exports in this new agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some statistical data on the Hispanic population in the United States and its growth, caused by a sustained immigrant influx. The paper develops the following points: 1) the importance and relevance of the Hispanic population in the United States; 2) the role of Mexican and Central American migration as the main sources of manual labor for the American economy; 3) the importance of migrants in the regional and national development in the countries of origin; 4) the situation and perspectives of the second generation; 5) the long-term integration of the Latin American immigrant population in the United States. The supporting arguments of recent essays criticizing the presence of the Hispanic population in the United States are examined as being a threat to English dominance and a factor for cultural disintegration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid-1950s through the mid-1980s, migration between Mexico and the United States constituted a stable system whose contours were shaped by social and economic conditions well-theorized by prevailing models of migration. It evolved as a mostly circular movement of male workers going to a handful of US states in response to changing conditions of labour supply and demand north and south of the border, relative wages prevailing in each nation, market failures and structural economic changes in Mexico, and the expansion of migrant networks following processes specified by neoclassical economics, segmented labour market theory, the new economics of labour migration, social capital theory, world systems theory, and theoretical models of state behaviour. After 1986, however, the migration system was radically transformed, with the net rate of migration increasing sharply as movement shifted from a circular flow of male workers going a limited set of destinations to a nationwide population of settled families. This transformation stemmed from a dynamic process that occurred in the public arena to bring about an unprecedented militarization of the Mexico-US border, and not because of shifts in social, economic, or political factors specified in prevailing theories. In this paper I draw on earlier work to describe that dynamic process and demonstrate its consequences, underscoring the need for greater theoretical attention to the self-interested actions of politicians, pundits, and bureaucrats who benefit from the social construction and political manufacture of immigration crises when none really exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. economy depends on the health of small businesses, which represent 99.9 percent of total U.S. businesses. Similarly, the Mexican economy depends on the health of its small (and medium) businesses, which represent 99.8 percent of total Mexican businesses. Small business creation and success is important to developed and developing countries, but risky. Studies have examined problems and opportunities created by small businesses. This paper examines problems and challenges faced by small businesses in Mexico and the USA. While these problems and challenges are similar in both countries, some important distinctions need to be identified. This is an important topic because small businesses that do not recognize which problems to avoid may quickly fail. Researchers noted there is no simple pattern for success among small businesses; there's no general theoretical framework for success. Certain issues impacting small businesses have been identified as critical success factors (CSFs). The literature review of CSFs was used to develop the instrument for this study. The methodology was identical for both the U.S. and Mexico studies and included focus groups with business owners in the United States and Mexico. The business owners represented different businesses and identified common problems faced by their businesses. Problems uncovered in the focus groups were included in a survey instrument, which ultimately identified 29 key business problems. The survey instrument examined small business owners' perceptions of current key problem areas. The 29 items presented to the small business owners in Mexico were identical to the 29 items presented in the U.S. survey. Factor analysis was used in an exploratory manner to analyze the interrelations among the 29 key business problems. The study's findings indicate that the small business owner is a key participant among a complex set of interrelated factors including the availability of capital, adequate human resources, governmental organization and relations, and strategic planning. The issues that impact small business development in the U.S. are very similar to the issues that impact small business development in Mexico, but there are some critical differences. The study revealed a significant difference between the factor structure of the problem areas as perceived by Mexican entrepreneurs and U.S. entrepreneurs. Small business owners, business advisors and government facilitators may benefit from this knowledge as they develop companies in these countries. The Mexican government may consider a special program to provide micro loans and also encourage formation of cooperatives according to business clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of the burden of disease attributable to smoking has now become standard in documenting the impact of the tobacco epidemic and in motivating tobacco control. This paper addresses the methods used to estimate the attributable burden of mortality and the related estimation of morbidity and economic costs. Estimates of attributable mortality and morbidity for the Americas range widely, reflecting the maturity of the tobacco epidemic. The estimates are highest for the United States, and lower for Mexico and other countries of the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to analyze the process of identity construction and socio-cultural integration of Mexico-American community and the community that cross-border what cohabit the Mexico-United States border, with intent to identify the mechanisms of integration into global production processes and the consequences they bring in the power dynamics that occur in that area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation industry is continually developing larger complex projects in an effort to keep the traveling public and goods moving. Investigating successful projects enables practitioners to apply and refine successful practices in order to manage future projects more effectively. This paper investigates the Transportation Expansion (T-REX) project in the United States and the Highway Durango Mazatlan project in Mexico to discover practices that supported the success of these two large, complex projects. Both projects have historic significance. T-REX was the first design-build project in the United States that included both major highway and transit elements and the Highway Durango Mazatlan project is the largest construction project to date in Mexico. The Highway Durango Mazatlan project was designated by Mexico's president as the project to commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of Mexico's independence. This mega-project was designed and is being built to highlight Mexico's capability of designing and building state-of-the-art transportation projects. The methodology used in this investigation was case study research with in-depth interviews of project managers. The investigation found that the greatest challenge for both project teams was constantly adapting to a challenging work environment. The common themes that contributed to the success of the projects were (1) early agency agreements and commitments, (2) understanding about the cultural and socio-political circumstances surrounding the project, (3) public outreach, and (4) recognition of circumstances that had an impact on the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]