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Economic behavior of indigenous peoples: the Mexican case

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  • Juan Pérez Velasco Pavón

Abstract

Indigenous peoples have three features in common: their historical heritage, their current culture and their extreme poverty. This paper presents a hypothesis about the development of a cultural factor: indigenous people prefer to work on a small scale. This cultural factor developed during the colonial period and remains a part of current indigenous culture. To test the hypothesis, I elaborated a trade model and an economic growth model that take into account the cultural factor. As predicted, the results help to explain indigenous peoples’ poverty. This article includes empirical evidence about Mexico’s indigenous population. Copyright The Author(s) 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Pérez Velasco Pavón, 2014. "Economic behavior of indigenous peoples: the Mexican case," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 23(1), pages 1-58, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:laecrv:v:23:y:2014:i:1:p:1-58
    DOI: 10.1007/s40503-014-0012-4
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cultural trails; Tradition; Microeconomic behavior; Firm behavior; Trade; Economic growth; Z13; D01; F1; O41;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models

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