Today Mexico is viewed as a success story in the management of economic adjustment and structural reform. Inflation is under control, capital and foreign investment are returning, and out growth has increased. Mexico's recovery, however, has been neither smooth nor rapid. In mid-1982, Mexico was in deep economic crisis compounded by an unfavorable international environment. Mexico was saddled with a large foreign debt, world interest rates were high, commercial banks had stopped lending, and the price for oil was dropping. Conditions at home were no better with rampant inflation, increasing capital flight, and chaos in financial and foreign exchange markets. To confront internal imbalances and accommodate adverse external conditions, Mexico adjusted its consumption and output, then sought new ways to foster growth. The crisis and adjustment imposed great hardship and demanded enormous discipline on the part of the government. This was accomplished without serious political or social disruption. In this book, Nora Lustig analyzes Mexico's economic evolution from the outset of the debt crisis in 1982 until the sweeping reforms began to bear fruit in the early 1990s. She explains the causes of the 1982 economic crisis and why it took Mexico "so long" to restore stability and growth. She also explores the question of the social costs of economic crisis and adjustment, and why the process may have been easier for Mexico than other debt-ridden countries. A discussion of the emerging role of the state in Mexico and the country's new outward-oriented development strategy is followed by an analysis of its search for greater economic integration with the United States and Canada. Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Book of 1992

Today Mexico is viewed as a success story in the management of economic adjustment and structural reform. Inflation is under control, capital and foreign investment are returning, and output growth has increased. Mexico's recovery, however, has been neither fast nor smooth, and the social costs the country has borne for the past several years have been very large. In 1982, Mexico faced a severe balance-of-payments crisis. Rampant inflation, capital flight, and a collapse of economic activity were the consequences of an overexpansionist fiscal policy and adverse external conditions. For the next five years, the Mexican government struggled to restore stability and growth without success. Falling oil prices and lack of adequate external financing made these goals extremely difficult to achieve. With the implementation of the Economic Solidarity Pact, inflation was finally brought down in 1988. However, fiscal discipline and far-reaching reforms notwithstanding, growth did not follow. To convince investors to put their capital in Mexico required something more. Initiatives such as the reprivatization of the banking system and the pursuit of a free trade agreement with the United States finally produced the observed turnaround starting in 1990. In this book, Nora Lustig tells the story of adjustment and reform in Mexico from the onset of the debt crisis in 1982 through the early 1990s when the sweeping reforms began to bear fruit. The author looks closely at the social costs of adjustment and who bore the greatest share. In addition, she explores the characteristics of the new development strategy and analyzes the motivations and potential consequences of Mexico's search for greatereconomic integration with the United States.

Today Mexico is viewed as a success story in the management of economic adjustment and structural reform. Inflation is under control, capital and foreign investment are returning and output growth has increased. Mexico's recovery, however, has been neither smooth nor rapid.

This book is the first comprehensive and systematic English-language treatment of Mexico's economic history to appear in nearly forty years. Drawing on several years of in-depth research, Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid and Jaime Ros, two of the foremost experts on the Mexican economy, examine Mexico's current development policies and problems from a historical perspective. They review long-term trends in the Mexican economy and analyze past episodes of radical shifts in development strategy and in the role of markets and the state. This book provides an overview of Mexico's economic development since Independence that compares the successive periods of stagnation and growth that alternately have characterized Mexico's economic history. It gives special attention to developments since 1940, and it presents a re-evaluation of Mexico's development policies during the State-led industrialization period from 1940 to 1982 as well as during the more recent market reform process. This reevaluation is critical of the dominant trend in economic literature and is revisionist in arguing that, in particular, the market reforms undertaken by successive Mexican governments since 1983 have not addressed the fundamental obstacles to economic growth. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy also details the country's pioneering role in launching NAFTA, its membership in the OECD, and its radical macroeconomic reforms. Carefully argued and meticulously researched, the book presents a wide-ranging, authoritative study that not only pinpoints problems, but also suggests solutions for removing obstacles to economic stability and pointing the Mexican economy toward the road to recovery.

The book examines how Mexico has tried to stabilize its economy with measures such as economic deregulation, fiscal reform, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and realistic budget management.

This book provides a full, historical, economic, and political context through which to understand the actions of the people and government of Mexico, and it gives insights into how those actions impinge -- and might continue to impinge -- on the United States.

Mexico is reinventing itself. It is moving toward a more tolerant, global, market oriented, and democratic society. This new edition of "Changing Structure of Mexico" is a comprehensive and up-to-date presentation of Mexico's political, social, and economic issues. All chapters have been rewritten by noted Mexican scholars and practitioners to provide a lucid and informative introductory reader on Mexico. The book covers such topics as Mexico's foreign economic policy and NAFTA; maquiladoras; technology policy; and Asian competition; as well as domestic economics such as banking, tax reform, and oil/energy policy; the environment; population and migration policy; the changing structure of political parties; and values and changes affecting women.

Studying the interaction of political and economic institutions in Mexico during the period of 1870-1930, this book shows how institutional change can foment economic growth.

This book offers an analysis of some of Mexico's most pressing problems. It is designed to help the reader understand the underlying dynamic processes shaping Mexican society and the Mexican economy. The chapters present a vision of a common pattern of distorted development that assumes unique forms in different parts of economic and social life.