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Copyright of Ensayos - Revista de Economía is the property of Ensayos Revista de Economia 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.)

Approaches to the estimation of shadow prices generally assume that all but one market function correctly. However, multiple market failures are common in developing countries. We present a theoretical model and an empirical strategy to estimate the shadow price of a subsistence good in an economy where labor markets fail. Our results show that: 1) among subsistence producers, the shadow price of this good must be greater than or equal to the market price, and equal to it for surplus growers; and 2) current methods create biases when the otherwise-perfect-markets assumption is violated. The propositions are tested using a representative survey for rural Mexico. We find that the shadow wage is below that of the market (MXN $93.2/day vs. MXN $132.3/day), and that the shadow price for subsistence corn is over ten times greater than its market price (MXN $32.37/kg vs. MXN $3.19/kg). Unbiased shadow price estimates for subsistence goods help to overcome the limitations of current income poverty measures: their overestimation of the purchasing power of subsistence households and their underestimation of the value of subsistence goods. In rural Mexico, current practice underestimates the population in food poverty by 2%; an additional 9% has income above the poverty line yet fail to meet the utilization dimension of food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Relaciones Internacionales (1699-3950) is the property of Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, International Relations Studies Group (GERI) Law Faculty 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.)

Objective. We examine the socioeconomic and health drivers of retirement decisions and compare these determinants between formal and informal sector workers in Mexico. Materials and methods. Using data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study 2012 and 2015, we estimate conditional probit models of retirement using sociodemographic, health, health care utilization, health insurance, private pensions, and social security systems covariates. The Institutional Review Board at the University of Southern California reviewed and approved the research (IRB # UP-15-00023). Results. We find that the social security systems are an important determinant for retirement age for formal sector workers. The informal sector workers, who lack access to retirement benefits of the social security system, make retirement decisions mainly based on health and access to health insurance through social security. Conclusion. Despite the lack of access to social security benefits, informal sector workers do not respond strongly to socioeconomic factors in determining the timing of retirement. Strengthening access to better health care services could improve health, extend working lives, and promote healthy aging for workers in the informal sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. We developed a MHAS (Mexican Health and Aging Study) and O*NET (Occupational Information Network) linkage to allow global researchers using MHAS data to assign lifetime occupation domains for older Mexicans. Materials and methods. Three bilingual raters independently matched 440 records with 132 unique occupation codes from the 2012 MHAS. We used a modified Delphi technique to reach agreements. To assess reliability, we compared the distribution of observations between the MHAS file and the MHAS-O*NET linked file across five job categories (upper white collar, lower white collar, upper blue collar, low blue collar, and agriculture/fishing/forestry). The Institutional Review Board at the University of Texas Medical Branch reviewed and approved the research (IRB # 21-0268). Results. Using the developed 1:1 MHAS-O*NET linkage, consistency between MHAS and O*NET was 97.4% across the five job categories. Conclusion. This MHAS-O*NET linkage will allow researchers to analyze the association between lifetime occupation and multiple dimensions of health, functionality, and retirement determinants for a low-middle income country with a large proportion of workers in the informal sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By exploiting spatial variation in import exposure arising from initial differences in industry specialization, we analyze how local labor markets in Mexico adjusted to increased Chinese‐import competition over different time horizons. The initial adjustment to the shock took various forms: a decline in the number of wage employees, a substitution of wage employees with piece‐rate or outsourced workers, and a substitution of formal employees with informal employees. The negative effects on employment were mainly associated with job destruction from exiting firms, particularly those that were small and medium‐sized. During periods in which employment fell, the population that actively participated in the labor force fell. The negative short‐ and medium‐run effects mostly disappeared after 20 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios Regionales en Economía, Población y Desarrollo is the property of Estudios Regionales en Economia, Poblacion y Desarrollo 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.)

The vulnerability of small firms to price shocks may partly explain why fossil fuel subsidy removals in developing countries are so difficult to implement. This paper analyzes the effects of fuel and electricity price increases on profits of micro- and small-sized enterprises in Mexico. Using representative cross-sectional data, simulations of profit losses hint at potentially large short-term effects. First-order profit losses of a 1 per cent price increase are 0.2 per cent for fuels and 0.07 per cent for electricity, but are higher than 1 per cent for fuels in the transport sector. These effects are larger for formal than for informal firms, with energy-using low-profit firms being most vulnerable. Second-order impacts – predicted using estimated input-demand elasticities – indicate that firms react to price shocks by substituting labor for energy, while the self-employed appear to increase their own labor input. Reduced-form regressions show that some firms pass on higher fuel costs to customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociedad y Economia is the property of Universidad del Valle 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.)

Mexico has an economically active population of nearly 48 million inhabitants, sixty percent lacks of social protection. Throughout the country's history has been a strong division between workers at the formal sector who have access to the social security system and informal sector who has lacked of any protection. The informal sector represents sixty percent of the economically active population and within that universe there are four self-employed dimensions recognized by the social security law for their integration in the social security system. This article is a critical analysis of the legal framework to show the regressivity of the Mexican social security system towards self-employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a special module of the 2015 Mexican Labour Force Survey with information on workers' preferences for jobs with social security coverage, it is found that 80 per cent of informal workers in large urban areas would prefer to work in a job that provides them with such coverage. The estimation of a discrete choice econometric model which distinguishes between wanting a formal job and the probability of getting one shows that schooling increases the chances of being hired in formal employment and of having higher earnings in it. Women with greater responsibilities at home are less likely to want formal employment, and they also face a lower probability of being hired in such jobs. The findings indicate the segmentation of Mexican labour markets and the rationing of formal jobs, together with the existence of workers who voluntarily participate in informal employment. However, the estimated fraction of involuntary informal workers is quite high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document job characteristics for young, male, urban workers in Mexico, a country with high informal employment and increasing education levels. The informal sector is composed of two distinct parts: salaried informal employment and self-employment. On almost every measure, including wages, informal salaried jobs are of lower quality than formal salaried or self-employed ones. We characterize short-term job type transitions among these workers and show that education plays a key role when transitioning into the formal sector, whereas age is more strongly associated with transitions into self-employment. Persistence in and transitions into formal jobs are more likely for more educated workers. These workers also benefit from higher wage gains when this transition is from informal salaried jobs. On average, wages are higher for workers transitioning into self-employment, but less-educated workers benefit more. For these workers, self-employment can represent an outlet for entrepreneurial talent for some, but like informal salaried work, for others, it can be the sector of last resort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Migración y Desarrollo is the property of Red Internacional de Migracion y Desarrollo 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 Migración y Desarrollo is the property of Red Internacional de Migracion y Desarrollo 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: Rates of exclusive breastfeeding fall below recommended levels, particularly among women in paid employment. In Mexico, more than half of women are in informal employment, meaning they lack many of the protections that may support breastfeeding., Methods: In-depth interviews with 15 key informants representing government agencies (n = 6 organizations), NGOs (n = 4), international organizations (n = 2), and academia (n = 2) in Mexico. Interviews were conducted between March and June 2023. To understand and describe barriers to breastfeeding among informally employed women in Mexico according to key informants and the current and potential policies to address these barriers, we conducted a qualitative thematic analysis., Results: Current policies to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding predominantly apply to all employed women, but respondents expressed concern that they did not provide adequate protection for women in informal employment. Additional themes concerned the need for relevant programs to be institutionalized and coordinated, discussions of breastfeeding as a right, and the legal equivalence (whether true in practice or not) of formal and informal workers., Conclusions: Women employed in Mexico's informal sector face a dearth of maternity protections. According to key informants, few policies exist to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding among employed women, in general, but the economic vulnerability and challenging working conditions of women in informal employment exacerbates their situation. The lack of access to formal labor protections, such as paid maternity leave, creates a significant barrier to breastfeeding for women in the informal sector. Recommendations include short-term policies to fill gaps in social protection for informally employed women, as well as longer-term solutions such as the development of universal social protection programs and supporting formalization., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Copyright of Arte y Políticas de Identidad is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia 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.)

In this paper, we suggest a holistic explanation for the role currently played by self-employment in less developed countries and, consequently, a reason for its persistence and growth in recent years. At the same time, we link this explanation with current discussions on the role of very small economic units and informality and their relation to unemployment rates. In general, countries where the combined share of self-employment and very small units is high exhibit lower unemployment rates than countries of similar levels of development, but where the small units' share is less significant. Using a rich set of labor data for Mexico, we examined flows between seven different labor statuses. Equilibrium vectors estimated through Markov matrices show that flows are linked to the economic cycle and that there exists a gender difference in behavior in these flows. We found that a dichotomic explanation of self-employment persistence (entrepreneurial reservoir/survival strategy) is not supported by evidence. We also found that strong links exist between the size of the self-employed sector and unemployment rates. With the help of a set of surveys on very small economic units, we identified a three-tier structure for very small economic units in Mexico. Thus, self-employment and small-sized economic units are both a source of income and a source of cheap goods for lower-income sectors. They serve as a buffer against unemployment and help to provide subsistence conditions for the poorest segment of the population. Finally, we discuss some questions that were raised along the text that help to guide future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many Latin American countries, social policy preferences among economically vulnerable citizens seem largely unpolarized. However, current studies rarely confront citizens with realistic policy options and often lack the required detail to capture the heterogeneity of economic vulnerability. Drawing on the dualization debate, we expect individuals facing different degrees of vulnerability to show distinct social policy preferences. Using original survey data from Mexico and a conjoint experiment, our findings reveal a complex divide, where the most economically vulnerable are least supportive of public solutions. Sharing the home with a formal labor market participant does not seem to mitigate social policy skepticism among the vulnerable. In contrast, magnified vulnerability via household composition reduces support for welfare policy expansion. Social policy preferences become much less distinct when policy design alternatives are introduced, suggesting reduced expectations about the state's role and a lack of clarity about the tangible benefits of social policy reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beyond job creation, informal economic activities have received little recognition for their contribution to economic systems. However, in recent years, new research trends have suggested that enterprises in the informal sector have productivity potential that can be encouraged through technological innovation. Nevertheless, the majority of these studies come from Asian and African countries, relegating Latin America's contributions to a marginal proportion. Through a qualitative analysis, this paper makes a pioneering contribution to the topic from a Mexican perspective, corroborating the presence of different types of innovations in the informal plastic industry and sizing its reach and social diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The great majority of people in developing countries depend on the informal economy for their livelihoods. In countries that rely heavily on tourism, pandemics and related confinements make these individual even more socioeconomically vulnerable. This paper critically explores the immediate socioeconomic effects on the informal tourism economy of confinement measures associated with the corona virus-19 pandemic, as seen from a social vulnerability perspective. Mexico is one of the countries that depends the most on tourism and the informal economy, so this nation was selected for an exploratory case study. The results suggest that many workers in the informal tourism sector were affected immediately by – and their vulnerability increased because of – pandemic-related confinements. These restrictive measures' imposition on the entire population highlighted Mexico's deep social inequalities. Recommendations are offered of how to protect vulnerable individuals involved in the informal tourism economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a search and matching model where jobs can be formal or informal. Workers choose schooling and search for jobs. Firms post vacancies in each schooling market and decide the job's formality status. Upon meeting, workers and firms bargain over wages. The equilibrium size of the informal sector is an endogenous function of labor market fundamentals and institutions. We estimate the model using labor force survey data from Mexico and exploiting the exogenous variation induced by a noncontributory social program. Counterfactual experiments show that eliminating informal jobs increases schooling investments but decreases welfare for both workers and firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mexican Journal of Economics & Finance / Revista Mexicana de Economia y Finanzas is the property of Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas 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 Semestre Económico is the property of Sello Editorial de la Universidad de Medellin 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 Estudios Gerenciales is the property of Universidad ICESI 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 Estudios Económicos 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.)

Copyright of Económicas CUC is the property of Corporacion Universidad de la Costa, CUC 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.)

Understanding innovation barriers is critical for innovation policy to design better incentives to innovation. This study explores the factors that influence the perception of innovation barriers in two emerging economies, Mexico and Turkey. The analysis integrates three sources of data into a comprehensive database. For Mexico, we use data from the ESIDET, 2010; for Turkey, we use data from TurkStat, 2010; while institutional country context indicators were gathered from a set of international databases. Our results suggest that firm and context characteristics matter as determinants of a firm's perception of innovation barriers, while there are differences between successful innovators and unsuccessful innovators. This paper contributes to the empirical and theoretical debate on innovation barriers through the analysis of how successful and unsuccessful innovators in two emerging economies perceive innovation barriers. It also contributes to the discussion on the role of the institutional context on innovation barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economía del Caribe is the property of Fundacion Universidad del Norte 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 Estudios Económicos 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.)

This paper adopts an analytical framework based on the literature of varieties of capitalism (VoC) by which to understand the trajectory of hierarchical market economy (HME) in Mexico, as well as the role played by the state in its endurance through notions like path dependence and institutional complementarities. Therefore, it explores the different historical stages in which the state designed and implemented diverse economic policies, which ultimately were unable to reverse the main features of a capitalism marked by hierarchy and heterogeneity. This framework is applied for the case of Mexico, also considering the current changes taking place in the country after a new government from a left-wing party was installed in the country in December 2018. Despite its calls to transform the nation, including an abandonment of the neoliberal model which prevailed in Mexico since the mid-1980s, this paper argues that the proposed changes need to take into consideration the historical role played by the state in the consolidation of the core features of a hierarchical market economy in the country. From its developmental role during the implementation of an import-substitution industrialization model between the 1940s and 1970s, to its alleged regulatory functions after the 1980s, the state played a key role in the consolidation of characteristics like the emergence and economic dominance of diversified business groups, together with large multinational corporations, and the manifestation of atomistic labor relations and a large informal sector. Hence, similar to other countries in Latin America that are also characterized by having HMEs, Mexico is a useful study case for comprehending the challenges faced by emerging economies in achieving a successful transformation of capitalism that could lead to finding ways of coordination and organization between actors in the pursuit of a new equilibrium, hence making sustained economic growth and socioeconomic development a reality in the long-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal variability driven by environmental shifts, biological processes, and socioeconomic fluctuations is inherent in natural resource-based sectors, including fisheries. In navigating these changes as opportunities for transformation, individual decisions play a key role. Understanding individual adaptive capacity, i.e., the ability to cope under changing or novel circumstances, and considering how this capacity is affected by diverse individuals' interactions with formal fisheries policy may allow a better understanding of adaptive capacity in a rapidly changing world. In Loreto Bay National Park, Baja California Sur, Mexico, the Mexican chocolate clam is an important source of food and livelihoods and is harvested by a diverse group of fishers. Understanding the diversity of fishers, their decision-making processes, and their adaptive strategies is essential for both anticipating fishery outcomes and predicting the capacity of different types of fishers to adapt to environmental and economic change. We used semistructured interviews with clam harvesters to ask: (1) What types of fishers exist within the chocolate clam fishery? (2) How do they differ in their adaptive strategies? and (3) What are the implications of diverse fisher types on individual adaptive capacity? We find that fishers of chocolate clams in this region operate within both the formal and informal sectors, have varied fishing strategies, and can be characterized into four discrete types. We also find that heterogeneity among fishers affects their individual capacities to adapt to changing conditions and disturbances, and fisheries policy constrains fishers' access to options by limiting secure access to fishing rights. Maintaining a diverse suite of adaptive strategies is essential for individuals to cope in the face of future disturbance and change. Likewise, maintaining heterogeneity in the fishery, by ensuring that multiple fisher types are equipped to adapt to future change, will strengthen adaptive capacity within the fishery and community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do the politics of agenda setting and policy adoption operate in the arena of healthcare reform in the industrializing world? Literature on the twenty‐first‐century developmental state emphasizes the role of democratic competition and civil society in causing political parties to take up new agendas, while power resources theory stresses the role of left‐wing political parties and labor unions in policy adoption. Yet, core tenets of these theories have not been considered extensively in light of dynamics in the industrializing world. This article examines the politics of policy adoption in countries that have recently aimed to provide healthcare access and financial protection to the poor and people in the informal sector in Mexico and Turkey. In line with literature on the twenty‐first‐century developmental state, we find democratic competition to play an important role in causing political parties to take up new agendas. However, examination of the cases illuminates surprising dynamics that challenge important elements of sociological theory: right‐leaning political parties played important roles in adoption, while labor unions and left‐wing parties oppose reform in the cases. Public health‐minded physicians leading change teams played important roles in agenda setting and leading the process of implementation. [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]

Following the indicators used by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in its studies and the publication Reversing Pension Privatizations: Rebuilding Public Pension Systems in Eastern Europe and Latin America (2018a), this analysis evaluates pension systems in Mexico in order to contextualize the debate regarding the following questions: Are privatizations a failure? Do we have to reverse privatizations or just reform the current system? Would it be enough? Or, do we have to build an integral system of public pensions? This paper presents a diagnosis of the current situation of the pension system in Mexico, in order to contextualize possible responses and the main challenges and circumstances for Mexican society. The lack and insufficiency of pensions for an aging population where most people work in the informal sector with low-income jobs poses a challenge to the pension system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the case of informal car parkers in Mexico City, to whom drivers regularly entrust the keys to their vehicles. In contrast to literature on social trust that expects institutional trust and interpersonal trust to support one another, the article shows that interpersonal trust improbably arises in the context of corrupt and inefficient institutions. Coercive and market dynamics undergird the interactions among car parkers, police officers, and drivers, making possible the emergence of an informal market and noncontractual agreements. The exchange between car parkers and drivers depends on the performance of class—a performance that becomes legible and formulaic enough to appear safe, precisely because it coalesces classist tropes that are clearly distinct and recognizable. Interpersonal trust becomes possible not only despite class cleavages and institutional shortcomings but, paradoxically, because of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informality often concerns policymakers due to its negative implications on productivity and poverty. In recent years, the extent of informal employment has diverged across Mexican states. Varying informal employment dynamics within a comparable institutional environment offers scope to identify policies that can reduce informality. This paper uses cross-state panel and individual data to examine the determinants of informal employment, exploiting the diverging outcomes across states, industries and time. The results suggest that there is no 'silver bullet' to combat informality, yet a package of policies promoting labour skills, encouraging foreign investment, enhancing tax enforcement and deterring corruption can reduce informal employment. Intriguingly, reducing the cost to start a business is found to have a non-linear effect on informal employment, conditional on the prevalence of microenterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Investing in maternity protection for working women is an important social equity mechanism. Addressing the maternity leave needs of women employed in the informal sector economy should be a priority as more than half of women in Latin America, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa are employed in this sector.Objective: To develop a costing methodology framework to assess the financial feasibility, at the national level, of implementing a maternity cash transfer for informally employed women.Methods: A World Bank costing methodology was adapted for estimating the financial need to establish a maternity cash transfer benefit. The methodology estimates the cash transfer's unitary cost, the incremental coverage of the policy in terms of time, the weighted population to be covered, and the administrative costs. The 6-step methodology uses employment and sociodemographic data that are available in many countries through employment and demographic surveys and the population census. The methodology was tested with data for Mexico assuming different cash transfer unitary costs and the benefit's time coverage.Results: The methodological framework estimated that the annual financial needs of setting up a maternity cash transfer for informally working women in Mexico ranges between US$87 million and US$280 million.Conclusions: A pragmatic methodology for assessing the costs of maternity cash transfer for informally employed women was developed. In the case of Mexico, the maternity cash transfer for women in the informal sector is financially feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an ethnographic account of informality, showing the complicity between the formal sector and the informal economy. Taking the reader on a car journey of urban disorganisation and traffic jams in Mexico City, the analysis shows how informality has become part of an everyday social contract. It is argued that the diverse world of informal practices, working as a popular survival strategy, is also entrenched in the workings of formal institutions, which draw on under-the-counter agreements and exchanges with the illegal economy, be that in the construction of public works in the city, in film and clothes piracy or in the public provision of water, transport, light or Internet services. The global hegemonic system could not function without these agreements: the transition from informality to illegality is slippery. If Mexico City is a global city it is not just for participating in the networks of transnational corporations, consulting firms and international tourism; it is also because of its networks with super brands in legal and illegal production. The article concludes by suggesting that an informal system of production, transactions and distribution of goods and services linking entrepreneurs from all continents can position the city on a global scale through non-hegemonic globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios Económicos 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.)

Informal entrepreneurship is a persistent and extensive phenomenon in both developed and developing countries and considerable efforts have been made to understand it from an ecosystem perspective. Nevertheless, literature that analyzes networks within and among individuals in the informal economic sector has received less attention. This study presents an interesting extension of Granovetter's "strength of weak ties" hypothesis. Until now, strong ties are perceived to be constraining and less beneficial than weak ties for the entrepreneurial activity. However, this paper critically examines this assumption in the context of informal entrepreneurship to explore in detail this networking dynamic and how it affects their financial and social performance. A qualitative approach using 50 face-to-face interviews in Mexico was conducted. Our findings demonstrate that strong ties provide the resources, support and information informal entrepreneurs need to reduce their adversity and vulnerable conditions, having a positive impact on their financial and social outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to characterize the small-scale producers of mezcal in order to a better understanding of their way of producing and organizing, so that when supporting policies are developed, these be aligned with their reality. Methodology. To achieve this, a qualitative exploratory study is conducted. Interviews applied to actors involved in the mezcal industry are used as methods of data collection, as well as a questionnaire applied to 52 small-scale producers. Results. The study shows six elements that help characterize the small-scale producers studied. these are: 1) the sense of family, 2) preservation of identity, 3) craft processes of production, 4) tacit knowledge, 5) spontaneous decisions and 6) informal economy. Limitations. The main limitation of the research relates to the samplés size, which was limited due to the difficulties to access remote communities; this study cannot be generalized. Conclusions. The papers concludes by suggesting that given the characteristics identified, these types of organizations have survived over the years, despite the disadvantages they face in the current socioeconomic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The need for a firm’s business strategy to be responsive to the institutional contexts of emerging markets is well-established in the literature. Often, however, strategic responsiveness is impeded by defining institutional contexts as country-level aggregations (macro-level) and glossing over sub-national variations (micro-level). The purpose of this paper is to investigate micro-level contexts that can defy macro-level assumptions of economic rationality.Design/methodology/approach As a research site, the motivations of street vendors in Mexico City are analyzed in terms staying in one sub-national context, the informal sector, as opposed movement to another, the formal sector. Unanticipated reluctance to move from one context to another is defined as stickiness.Findings Sub-national institutional contexts are found to be sticky, with less movement between informal and formal sectors than would have been anticipated. Unexpectedly, it is found that a significant number of street vendors prefer the hardship of the informal sector to the relative security of the formal sector.Research implications International business research makes assumptions about the growth narrative of emerging markets, often characterizing a growing middle class as a rising tide that lifts all boats. In terms of further research on adapting strategy, however, assumptions of rational expectations ought to be tempered, as demonstrated by the stickiness of the informal sector.Originality/value A contribution is made to the international business literature by showing that macro-level assumptions about institutional context based on rational expectations of wealth-maximizing behavior in emerging markets may result in an incomplete view of institutional context. Ultimately, adaptation of strategy could be impaired as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El modelo de desarrollo neoliberal ha sido un éxito para los empresarios, lo que contrasta con la precarización del trabajo, el incremento del trabajo informal, los bajos salarios y la mayor pobreza en el país. Esta degradación del trabajo se ha sustentado en organizaciones sindicales que privilegian su propia sobrevivencia solapando violaciones sistemáticas a los derechos fundamentales del trabajador y a las normas laborales nacionales e internacionales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally it is mentioned that the informal occupation is composed of the lower and marginalized levels of the population, as they do not have the qualifications and skills necessary to integrate into the formal labor market. However, the last 20 years, the processes of capitalist transformation have formed a new middle class, which in the labor sphere I assume distinctive peculiarities, which seem to point to an improvement in the world of work. In this environment and for Mexico (1997-2013), the study applied a comparative methodology (formal and informal economy) and a middle-class segmentation (middle-income approach) to explain the main trends of the stratum and to find If their particularities are the same or different from the global and Latin American scope, as well as to identify the implications for the structuring of employment and social classes. The results found differentiations between the dynamics and characteristics of the Mexican middle class and those existing in the world and regional, which set up a stratum that tended to precarizar the dynamics of the social classes and their consequences in the occupations are still unpredictable In the short and medium term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While in Mexico City formal jobs are concentrated in the city centre, affordable housing is generally only available in its outer rings. This reduced accessibility to formal employment would suggest that the poor have longer commutes. However, observed travel times show that low-income workers actually have the shortest commutes. Using two linear programming transportation models we found that this is due to the location of informal work activities, which seems to be a function of the residential location of workers involved in the informal sector as a response to the disadvantages of the formal urban structure of jobs and housing that affect the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este artículo desarrolla un modelo estocástico que explica el comportamiento de un vendedor ambulante del sector informal en México. En el modelo propuesto, el agente tiene un consumo de subsistencia sujeto a dos restricciones: la primera considera un ingreso incierto y la segunda consiste en su rutina de consumo. A través del modelo propuesto se determinan la proporción óptima del ingreso que el individuo destina al ahorro cuando hay un exceednte y las horas que destinará a su actividad, así como la estrategia óptima de consumo futuro. Asimismo, a través de un modelo VAR, se muestra evidencia empírica, que confirma los resultados de la propuesta utilizando datos de consumo y salario del individuo, así como la población económicamente activa en el sector informal, entre otras variables relevantes entre 2005 y 2011. Para ello se lleva a cabo un análisis de causalidad de Granger, funciones de impulso-respuesta y descomposición de la varianza. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary While recent literature has pointed to a positive effect of migrants’ remittances on the financial development of receiving countries, findings with respect to access to and the use of loans have been ambiguous. This paper investigates the effect of remittances on the use of formal and informal financial services using Mexican household data and finds positive and statistically significant effects of remittances on the ownership of savings accounts, the existence of debts, and on recent borrowing. The fact that the effect of remittances on borrowing is driven by informal finance rather than by traditional bank loans points to deficiencies of the formal financial sector in addressing the financial needs of remittance-receiving households. We address methodological concerns of selection bias and reverse causality through household fixed effects and an instrumental strategy that exploits distance to train lines and labor market conditions in the US as exogenous determinants of remittances. [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]