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Since its appearance in 2020, Brazil and Mexico have been among the most affected countries in the world by covid-19. Their respective presidents, Jair Bolsonaro and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO), have played a leading role in specific policies during the pandemic. Their choices were both singular and counter- intuitive. On the health front, AMLO initially underplayed the seriousness of the situation, and the Brazilian president, Bolsonaro, defended a frankly negationist attitude, with a dramatic balance sheet, without his popularity being seriously affected. On the economic front, they have chosen policies that contradict not only each other but also their own supposed ideological stances. Bolsonaro, who is ranked on the far right, has implemented an emergency transfer program on a scale comparable to those of developed countries and the most massive the country has ever seen. Conversely, AMLO, considered a progressist, provided just a minimum policy package, maintaining his previous electoral program. By adopting a comparative approach and mobilizing a unique and diversified set of data, the objective of this paper is to explore these apparent contradictions. After having established the precise diagnosis of the policies implemented to deal with the crisis and the economic and health situation in the two countries during the 2020-2022 period, we propose an original interpretation grid of the central role played by the two presidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to quantify the land use from the primary activities in terms of consumption in Mexico. To do this, we assign data on the land use for agriculture, livestock, productive forestry, and aquaculture to the primary economic activities represented in the 2018 input-output table. Also, the input-output model of land use is complemented with statistical information from the import matrix and the social accounting matrix of 2018. The results indicate that the land footprint amounts to 61 745 416 hectares and 0.49 hectares per capita. This means that 73% of the land footprint is represented by land areas within our country and 27% by areas in other countries. The land demand derived from the consumption of the population in Mexico is greater than the land areas used in the production of primary activities. This study has two limitations: one referred to the assumptions of the input-output model and another, to the concept of land use. The originality and value of the article consist in analyzing the demand for land for food production in Mexico, which represents the greatest threat to the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems and the ecological services that emanate from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, higher education is considered one of the main routes of upward social mobility. However, given the plurality of options offered by the education system at this level, there may be a distinctive pattern not only of socioeconomic origin but also of economic results after graduating from a specific higher education institution (hei), which can inhibit the promotion of social mobility through hei. Using data from the Intergenerational Social Mobility Module 2016, this paper analyzes whether the hei in Mexico promote the social mobility of their graduates. The results suggest a potential mediating effect of hei in the intergenerational transmission of wealth. This means that the wealth of the original household is an important determinant of the type of hei from which the respondents graduate, furthermore, the type of hei also explains part of the variation in the wealth of the current household of graduates. Specifically, individuals who reported having completed their university studies at the National Polytechnic Institute (ipn, Mexico) present the lowest intergenerational correlation of wealth, 0.18. In contrast, normal schools and the National Pedagogical University (upn, Mexico) have the highest intergenerational persistence rates, 0.48 and 0.47, respectively. Under these findings, it is argued that the type of hei from which individuals graduate can complement the explanation of the mechanisms of intergenerational persistence of wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to other countries, in Mexico, there is no survey to numerically measure consumer inflation expectations. This paper reports the results of the application of a simple questionnaire that aims to obtain a first approximation of these expectations. The exercise also seeks to obtain information on the process of expectations formation through a controlled intervention, as well as to investigate which products have an effect on inflation expectations the most. Four groups were randomly formed: three that received information on past, present or expected inflation, and a control group with no additional information. Consistent with the literature, the results show that people have a higher inflation expectation than specialists. The experiment also reveals that providing information does affect and reduce inflation expectations. Finally, we find that inflation expectations depend mainly on everyday consumer products, such as food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate comparatively the quality of exports from Mexico and South Korea. The indicators used are the following: domestic value-added (va) embodied in exports; decomposition of domestic value-added between direct, generated indirectly exporting activities, and indirect, created in those that produce inputs that are embodied in exports; use of domestic va embodied in exports by the rest of the world, divided between the parts to produce exports and for uses other than exports; domestic employment contained in exports, both for directly and indirectly exporting activities; labor productivity in the export sector in direct and indirect exporting activities; and wages per worker in the export sector, also classified between those that export directly and those that supply inputs to exporting activities. All indicators are broken down by technological level of exports according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (oecd) classification (2011). The data analysis allows us to conclude that, despite the high weight of manufacturing exports, particularly those of high and medium-high technology, in total exports of Korea and Mexico, the quality of these exports of the former is much higher than those of the latter: domestic va contained in their exports (as a percentage of exports) is notably higher; they are more integrated into the global value networks of parts and components; domestic linkages, measured by the indirect jobs they generate, are more intense; and labor productivity and, consequently, wages per employee in export activity are three times higher than in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mexican automotive sector--integrated into the regional value chain of North America, led by the United States--is characterized by performing mainly manufacturing tasks, which limits its value-added contribution. However, this does not imply that the environmental impact resulting from these tasks is proportional to the value it generates. The paper aims to analyze this dual dimension of the Mexican automotive sector, by describing both its productive structure and its environmental impact related to its foreign trade flows. The results reveal uneven participation in the regional value chain depending on whether Mexican value-added exports are considered in monetary or emission terms, which exhibits a greater contribution in terms of emissions than in value compared to the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]