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This paper develops two methodological approaches for calculating the float factor of the stock market index (IPC) of the Mexican stock market (BMV). The first one assumes that the free float factor is approximated by the normalization of the daily market rotation of each title, while the second one uses the relative daily market rotation. In both cases, the float factor is simulated by a variable with mean reversion similar to the one proposed in Cox, Ingersoll and Ross' model (1985). The methodologies we have established here remedy the inability to replicate the IPC because of the elements of confidentiality that the float factor currently has. Moreover, the proposed flotation factor can be updated instantly given the nature of the developed models. The paper shows that the weights of the firms in the ipc, calculated by using the formulated methodologies, are substantially different from those provided by the BMV when applying its flotation factor, which contains discretionary components of information difficult to verify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies information of 357 professors or researchers from 28 academic institutions in Mexico. All these individuals have published at least one paper between the years 2000 and 2010 in journals included in the EconLit data-base. The analysis indicates that these professors or researchers publish on average one paper in EconLit journals every two years and eight months. Moreover, most of these publications are concentrated in a small set of Mexican journals. On the other hand, few publications appear on prestigious international economics journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the recent Mexico experience in the opening to competition in networks infrastructure mainly in the telecommunications sector. In spite of deregulation and privatization policies in the recent past, there are threats coming from regulatory failures which create obstacles in the process of maximizing the competition scope. The path from State-operation to “managed competition” leads to a deficient competition environment due to the excessive authority oversight, which make costly future, more ambitious, deregulation efforts. The paper focus on interconnection policy between the public telephone network operator and the new long distance carriers, and explore related provisions in natural gas and railroads. Also, it focus on spectrum policy allocation and the role of the new antitrust authority and the specialized regulatory agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to verify if there is any effect in the income distribution for the Mexican economy when applying a tax on fossil fuels in order to reduce CO2 emissions. In order to reach this goal a computable general equilibrium model was built following the Shoven and Whalley method. It is observed that the application of a tax achieves a reduction in fossil fuel demand, but it does not have any meaningful consequence on the income redistribution of the society. All the levels of the economy have a loss in welfare as a consequence of the application of this tax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the design of an early warning system (EWS) to evaluate the possibility of public debt crisis in Mexico. For the EWS construction we use the signal detection theory based on non-parametric statistics and exploratory data analysis. We generated a mainly classified index, which is able to adjust to debt fluctuations. The model is estimated using data for the period 1990-2010, taking financial ratios as classifiers, and as a target variable the total net debt of the public sector as a proportion of gdp. Our results are consistent with the theoretical proposition. This article is suggested as a manual to build up a monitoring tool that allows macroprudential analysis of public debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some countries, including Mexico, are drug producers and exporters, although their domestic consumption is relatively low. They count with very few tools and resources to reduce drug demand (this, due to an exogenous variable), but they face a high social cost which is mainly caused by the activities of criminal groups. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze these groups using economic theory, and comes to it showing two things: a) production and drug traffic induce criminality, and the delinquents have a high probability of becoming hitmen, and b) public spending to fight drug cartels can cause criminals to violate agreements among them, leading to an increase in violence. Evidence for Mexico is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation classifies Mexican states according to their strength for attracting clean development mechanism (CDM) projects, as a means to promote economic development from donating Annex I countries of the Kyoto Protocol. We calculated that 46.5 per cent of all cdm projects are concentrated in the states of Jalisco, Coahuila, Puebla, Durango and Veracruz. The study classifies the 32 Mexican states using cluster analysis, based on three dimensions: potential to achieve gas reductions, institutional capacities to tackle the environment; and the general investment climate. The technique creates five clusters where the key variable responds to greenhouse gas reduction projects. Findings have implications both for cdm policies, their federal and state coordination, and also for invest- ment readiness by some states that demonstrate institutional capabilities, but where State-owned Pemex and CFE have shown low attraction of projects and shallow institutional commitment. The paper contributes to analyze the distribution of this type of projects at sub-national level, and their pulling and limiting forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship between the arrival of news on macroeconomic performance and the Mexican stock market. We examine the reaction of daily excess returns of the stock price index, "indice de precios y cotizaciones" (IPC), as well as of seven portfolios from the Mexican stock market, "Bolsa Mexicana de Valores" (BMV), to announcements on macroeconomic variables of Mexico and the US. We use garch models and focus on the unexpected or surprising component of the news about macroeconomic performance. The study covers the period 2003-2008. We find that the dynamics of daily returns in the Mexican stock market is linked to the arrival of new information (surprises) on macroeconomic fundamentals of both Mexico and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the Mexican automobile and truck industries, and estimates the long run functional relationship between these industries and the automobile industry in the USA. The methodology consists of a cointegration analysis of the two series in the long run and the estimation of an autoregressive vector to evaluate the response of the Mexican automobile industry to shocks coming from the US automobile industry. The results show a longrun positive functional relationship between the US car industry and the Mexican car and truck industries, and also a shortterm positive shock with four periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at assessing the impact of deregulation initiatives on the recent performance of Mexico's airline industry. By doing so, three econometric models are estimated with the view of differentiating the weights of deregulation variables from the ones of non-deregulation variables. The main statistical findings support the idea that deregulation in Mexico's airlines: 1) has had only a marginal positive effect on the number of passengers; 2) has been no influential in establishing a definite competitive price structure in the market, and 3) has rendered insufficient benefits for improving competition conditions in the airline market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the conditions for microenterprises to remain in the market. The analysis demonstrates that microenterprises facing tight constraints may remain in the market only if they are capable of achieving increasing returns and economies of scale that shift down their average cost curves towards more competitive levels. This finding is supported by the analysis of a sample of 95 Mexican microenterprises, and by the estimation of a production optimization model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On these current days, the world's economic map is dominated by clusters or economic groupings, present in almost all geographical levels, which have demonstrated to be critical masses with an unusual success on specific fields. Such clusters are groupings of firms and related institutions that compete, and at the same time cooperate. In this new context of economic activity organization, industrial groupings (clusters) are fundamental, and their performance has become a key factor for cities', regions' and nations' competitive advantages. In this paper, I analyze and implement a methodology that identifies benchmark clusters, useful for applied regional based economic studies. The approach addressed here, applied to the Mexican economy, is based on Feser and Bergman's methodology, and an extension due to Rey and Mattheis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates to what extent the end-of-sample problem inherent to the Hodrick-Prescott (HP) filter may be ameliorated when estimating the output gap. For that purpose, the filter of St-Amant and van Norden (1997) is proposed using Mexican data under both univariate and multivariate methods. As a reference, the filter of Christiano and Fitzgerald (2003) and a simple linear trend method are also used. On average, the results suggest that both the univariate method of St-Amant and van Norden and the linear trend method may significantly decrease the end-of-sample problem of the HP filter. These results are used to interpret the conduct of monetary policy in Mexico during 2001-2002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and tries to quantify the effects of some factors that have affected costs of state owned electric utilities in Mexico (energy losses, fuel and labor). It is noted that the impact of the increase in fuel prices on the electric utilities' total cost in the last years has been important. However, the "over-cost" associated to energy losses and labor is also significant and comparable to the impact of the increase in fuel prices. The structure of cross subsidies in the industry is also described, pointing out that it is complex and makes the performance evaluation of the state owned electric utilities difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the strategic behavior adopted by food industry plants located in North-Western Mexico. In addition, a taxonomy of the adopted strategies is constructed so it can be used as a reference to similar studies on any of the areas conforming this industry. We present the results of the data obtained from interviews conducted to managers of the 28 industry plants analyzed. To examine the data, a combination of statistical methods and techniques of log-lineal models and correspondence analysis were utilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the determinants of employment in the Mexican states, from a dynamic approach to externalities. We use information from the census of the manufacturing industry for 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2003. The study ranges over the industry branches of grain milling (branch 3114), bakery products (branch 3115) and milling of corn and tortilla production (3116). The results suggest that the growth of employed personnel in each branch depends positively on the growth experienced by the other branches that make up industry sub-sector 31 (food, beverages and snuff). Furthermore, it is proved that externalities do not have a positive impact on employment growth .This suggests that the dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge at an intra- and inter-industrial scale encourages productive diversity and specialization, but does not trigger innovation processes with impact on employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in quality in information technology products provoke that compilation of their price indexes represent a major challenge. In this respect, this paper has three goals. In first place, to build price indexes for personal computers during 1990-2004. In second place, to compare our price indexes with those compiled by Mexican Central Bank, Spanish National Institute of Statistics, and Bureau of Labor Statistics. In third place, to make an exploration about the viability of hedonic functions transfer between countries. Our results show a 21% average decline of the PC price index during the analyzed period. In consequence, official price index related to computers has a measurement bias. The adjusted CPI implies that the inflation rate was 4.425%, and not 4.463% as established by the Central Bank between July 2003 and December 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the impact of per capita income levels of Mexican border cities on labor employment of the US border city pairs. During the 90's, the northern border cities of Mexico experienced rapid growth in their population and in their manufacturing and services sectors. A generalized least squares econometric model was constructed in order to estimate the impact of the Mexican cities per capita income on the employment of services and manufacturing sectors of the US border cities. The results showed that the coefficients of the variables of income and border crossings positively affected the employment of the manufacturing and services sectors of the US border cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explain the new location factors which are associated with the recent establishment of export-oriented motor plants in the North of Mexico. The findings support the hypothesis that some types of plants, such as the automotive export companies studied here, are more interested in applying flexible production systems than in taking advantage of the Weberian industrial location determinants. The study concludes that industrial organization theory is relevant in the design of industrial policy, while at the same time recognizing the need to broaden and to reformulate location models inherited from Regional Economics. Of particular importance is the need to recognize the high risks for failure in continuing to follow traditional industrial policies based on production subsidies and or for the provision by government agencies of dedicated infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to discuss productivity changes among the different sized firms and intensities in the use of inputs in Mexican manufacturing. In order to analyze the underlying factors causing productivity differences we estimated an econometric model. Our results demonstrate that the productivity determinants are the result of an interrelated set of micro and macroeconomic variables. We show that there is a duality in the behavior among firms and therefore, the expected impact from the micro-macroeconomic variables having to do with the productivity dynamic are dissimilar. Finally we expose some of the implications of these differing impacts, both from the theoretical point of view, as well as from an economic policy standpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper measures the effect of the labor factor mobility on the convergence rate to the steady state of the economy. It is estimated that this rate in relatively low for the Mexican Federate States, compared with other countries like the United States and Japan. However, the ratios between the Mexican Federate States and the US are very similar during the 80’s. According to our estimations, the mobility of the labor factor, “pure” or adjusted by human capital, between the Mexican Federate States does not seem to have a significative effect on the convergence rate to the long run per capita real product; which means that the mobility of the labor force does not seem to smooth considerably the differences in per capita real product between the States. Our results have several implications for Regional Policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper detects market power at the two digit level in the Mexican manufacturing sector for the period 1970- 1991. Similarly to Hall (1988), the identification assumption is that total factor productivity growth is not procyclical. The test holds even for the case in which the market power coefficient is variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the absolute version of the purchasing power parity hypothesis is bested as a long-run equilibrium condition in the Mexican case, in particular the existence of convergence between the prices of Mexico and the prices of United States, valuated in the same currency is evaluated. The existence of unit roots in different measures of the real exchange rate and the cointegration of various kinds of internal and external prices valued in the same currency, are tested by using several methodologies. The results show weak evidence in favor of the purchasing power parity which would be a consequence of the action of structural and transitory economic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the prospects for Mexican industry after opening to freer trade. The first part deals with the impact during transition on industrial capacity, particularly the loss of technological capabilities and the scarce development of industrial linkages. The second part shows the recent pattern of industrial specialization in Mexico lacking sectorial linkages, increasing imports content and heavily concentrated in scale intensive and resource based industries. The specialization has favored activities of little technological dynamism where most technological innovations are controlled or dominated through suppliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a summary of the theory of fiscal decentralization for a federal government. Possible applications of the theory to the case of Mexico are discussed. Finally, a reform consisting of a partial decentralization of the personal income tax is simulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the causes of the growth in spending for the public sector in Mexico, during the period 1925 to 1976, will be investigated. The evidence is explained in terms of three approaches in the positive economics of Public Choice Theory: 1) median voter theory, 2) an institutional approach, and 3) the theory of interest groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the dynamics of economic performance for the sub-national Mexican states from 1970 to 2006; the state variables used are the levels and the growth rates of per capita GDP. The authors situate this approach in a conceptual and methodological panorama of the existent literature. Starting from the regime concept, the paper introduces a distance notion to compare the observed paths and the clustering of the economies whose evolution is studied. The analysis shows that two fundamental clusters have existed: one of high and another of low performance, in addition to other transitory groups. In the high performance cluster the member's number increases, while in the low performance cluster this number diminishes. At the same time, the article shows that the sub-national states that belong to the first cluster have had an increasingly similar performance. Also, it confirms that the sub-national states move from the low to the high performance cluster, and that the distance between both clusters has increased. The interpretation of these facts is based on the dual economy concept proposed by the development theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a chronicle of the arise and evolution of a communitarian and intersectional coordination web that for over five years has been looking forward to halt and revert the environmental degradation in San Antón, a urban community located at the shore of the Apatlaco river, one of the main watercourses in Cuernavaca, Morelos, which bears high pollution levels. The paper presents the communitarian development of an autonomous process of management and regulation, related to the local ecosystem in an urban frame. It focuses on socioeconomic institutional change and its possible role in the resolution of coordination failures and the internalization of environmental externalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to analyze the current situation and perspectives, both at the short run and middle run, of the Mexican exportation maquiladora industry. It is to combine quantitative economic conjuncture analysis with its principal components, that is, the empiric base (statistical information in monthly time series, in this case Mexican aggregated value of exports by maquila services in total national and regional levels in Mexico) and the quantitative methods (statistical-econometrics techniques). For this purpose we present a methodological proposal that models the time series through ARIMA models with outliers and calendar effects, and next we use a reduced model-based procedure for the signal extraction of these time series. The trend cycle component is the appropriate way to analyze its underlying evolution. Using the concepts of underlying growth and inertia, we can extract the main conclusions for the current situation of the Mexican maquila sector, including the regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to describe and analyze some of the tools used in social policy to target poverty reduction programs in Mexico. Targeting strategy programs center public actions to a reasonable well defined population or territory, in order to achieve a more focused efficiency in the resource allocation stage. Using data from the National Household Survey of Income and Expenditure (ENIGH) 2002, three econometric models are used to identify the target population: Discriminant Analysis, a Logit Model and a Hierarchical Logit Model. The results show that Discriminant Analysis, which is the main tool used by Sedesol to identify individuals in poverty conditions, has the lowest undercoverage error for the three measures of the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty index. The result leads to conclude that this method proves to be the most efficient in identifying population in poverty conditions, given the available information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents income poverty and inequality estimates at the State and Municipal levels for Mexico. Our estimates allow for the mapping of poverty and inequality in the country, as well as for determining the specific contribution of each geographic unit to overall poverty. Additionally, it allows to measure inequality in disaggregated geographic spaces, and to decompose inequality in terms of the proportion due to within and between States and Municipalities. Our estimates are based on robust household income measures, generated with methodologies that allow for solving the common dilemma in welfare measurement, namely that there is either information with low quality measurement but high possibilities of disaggregation, or information with high quality measurement but representative only at aggregated levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a macroeconometric simulation model for Mexico on a microeconomics basis. This proposal has several distinctive features that makes it different from other models that have been previously elaborated for the Mexican economy. Behavioral relationships are not specified in an ad-hoc manner, but by means of the study of rational behavior of all the economic agents and their interactions with the markets. Through the formulation of intertemporal optimization models, the dynamics of the key macroeconomic variables are determined. Our proposal allows to reproduce stylized facts of the Mexican economy observed between 1995 and 2002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the relationship between the Mexican peso/USD exchange rate and the net positions of speculators in the peso futures market at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange within the microstructure approach to exchange rate determination. For the period January 5th, 1999-November 1st, 2005, it is shown that the relationship has not been constant due to the fast growth in the peso futures market. This implies that any effort to forecast the peso/USD exchange rate exploiting this relationship must consider this fact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]