Abstract

BANEGAS GONZALEZ, Israel  and  CORTES CACERES, Fernando. Structural reform and inequality in Mexico. Economía UNAM [online]. 2020, vol.17, n.49, pp.85-106.  Epub Dec 22, 2020. ISSN 1665-952X.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fe.24488143e.2020.49.508.

This paper analyzes Mexico’s household income distribution from 1977 to 2014. By studying this time period, it is possible to contextualize the observed tendencies with Mexico´s macroeconomic evolution: the last years of the ISI (import substitution industrialization) model (1977-1984); the economic structural change (1985 onwards); the recovery from the “Tequila Effect” crisis (1998), the recovery from the 2000 crisis (2004), and the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis (2012). We argue that income distribution is relatively stable during the ISI macroeconomic model and during the open market model. Yet during the ISI years income inequality presents a downward trend. Once the Washington Consensus reforms were implemented, Mexico experiences an income inequality increase. It is during this second period that, with the implementation of a large scale conditional monetary transfer program that household income inequality reverts its upward trend -yet it does not reach the level of ISI years. With the Mexico’s household income and consumption survey (ENIGH by its acronym in Spanish), we will show the evolution of monetary household income deciles, the evolution of total income, per capita income and earners’ income, as well as a set of dispersion indices in order to support our argument

Keywords : Economic Welfare; Welfare and Poverty; Economic Development; Measurement of Economic Growth.