Resumo

LINARES ZARCO, Jaime. La importancia económica de los municipios en el México del siglo XXI. Región y sociedad [online]. 2012, vol.24, n.54, pp.35-61. ISSN 2448-4849.

The development of capitalism can't be explained without understanding the development of cities, which themselves are powerful productive forces that concentrate population, industrial activity, tertiary services, educational and health services, government and political agencies, as well as transportation corridors and communication infrastructure, at the expense of development in the rest of the country. The objective of this article is to analyze the economic structure of the "cells" within Mexico -that is, municipalities- and their contribution to the generation of wealth in each state, as well as their contribution to national added value, in order to quantify the degree of economic concentration. The hypothesis is that the enormous centralization of economic activities within a few municipalities, although it has generated greater employment and production, has been focalized, and, therefore, has not led to economic improvement for the majority of the state's population, which has meant increased poverty, unemployment and emigration to the United States.

Palavras-chave : production; economic concentration; regional and municipal development.