IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/oxdevs/v32y2004i1p59-86.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic reform or social development? the challenges of a period of reform in Latin America: case study of Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Diana Alarcon
  • Eduardo Zepeda

Abstract

>The paper argues that 20 years of development have produced very mixed results in the economies and societies of Latin America. While the region was successful in reversing the large macroeconomic disequilibria of the 1980s, economic volatility persists, mainly associated with greater integration to the world economy. More importantly, the social impact of the long period of reform remains controversial. Through a review of comparable economic and social data for the region, it is suggested in this paper that such inconsistency—between economic and social performance—may be the result of deep flaws in the design of development policies. Over-concern for macroeconomic stability, fast growth and rapid integration to the international economy has resulted in insufficient attention being given to the social cost of adjustment and structural change. Social policies have been mainly concerned with the administration of scarce resources and the creation of safety nets to counter the negative social impact of economic policy. Less attention has been given, however, to resolving long-entrenched inequalities in society, to improving the productivity of labour and broad-based access to productive capital. We illustrate one aspect of this discussion through a review of employment trends in the manufacturing sector in Mexico to show that, in spite of rapid job creation, lack of integration with the rest of the economy has generated overall poor employment results, partly a result of the failure of industrial policies to provide a timely response to the many challenges faced by opening up international competition. This case study helps us to support the claim that what is probably lacking in Latin America is a strategic approach to policy design to bring consistency between rapid changes in the economy and longer term development objectives, between the short and the long term, between stability and growth, and between rising productivity and improvement of welfare in the largest developmental sense.

Suggested Citation

  • Diana Alarcon & Eduardo Zepeda, 2004. "Economic reform or social development? the challenges of a period of reform in Latin America: case study of Mexico," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 59-86.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:32:y:2004:i:1:p:59-86
    DOI: 10.1080/1360081042000184129
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1360081042000184129
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1360081042000184129?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William Maloney & Jairo Mendez, 2004. "Measuring the Impact of Minimum Wages. Evidence from Latin America," NBER Chapters, in: Law and Employment: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean, pages 109-130, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Weller, Jürgen, 2000. "Reformas económicas, crecimiento y empleo: los mercados de trabajo en América Latina y el Caribe," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1653 edited by Cepal.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alarcón González, Diana & Zepeda, Eduardo, 2007. "Growth, poverty and the distribution of labor earnings in Brazil, Chile and Mexico," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 4308, Inter-American Development Bank.
    2. repec:ilo:ilowps:384376 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Eduardo Zepeda & Diana Alarcón & Fabio Veras Soares & Rafael Guerreiro Osorio, 2009. "Changes in Earnings in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico: Disentangling the Forces Behind Pro-Poor Change in Labour Markets," Working Papers 51, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    4. Ernst, Christoph., 2005. "Economic opening, FDI and its contribution to the creation of quality employment in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico," ILO Working Papers 993843763402676, International Labour Organization.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. García Cruz Gustavo Adolfo, 2008. "Informalidad regional en Colombia. Evidencia y Determinantes," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, February.
    2. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Nina Pavcnik, 2007. "The Effects of the Colombian Trade Liberalization on Urban Poverty," NBER Chapters, in: Globalization and Poverty, pages 241-290, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. David Fairris & Gurleen Popli & Eduardo Zepeda, 2008. "Minimum Wages and the Wage Structure in Mexico," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 66(2), pages 181-208.
    4. Derk Bienen, 2002. "Mindestlohnreformen in Südamerika – ökonomische Rechtfertigung und praktische Umsetzung," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 090, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    5. János Köllö, 2010. "Hungary: The Consequences of Doubling the Minimum Wage," Chapters, in: Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead (ed.), The Minimum Wage Revisited in the Enlarged EU, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Adriana AnaMaria Davidescu & Tamara Maria Nae & Margareta-Stela Florescu, 2022. "Exploring the Moderation and Mediation Effects in Addressing the Main Determinants of Income Inequalities in Supporting Quality of Life: Insights from CEE Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-28, July.
    7. World Bank, 2005. "Labor Market Adjustment, Reform and Productivity in Colombia : What are the Factors that Matter? Volume 2 : Technical Report," World Bank Publications - Reports 8406, The World Bank Group.
    8. Chiara Binelli, 2008. "Returns to Education and Increasing Wage Inequality in Latin America," Working Paper series 30_08, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    9. Djankov, Simeon & Ramalho, Rita, 2009. "Employment laws in developing countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 3-13, March.
    10. María F. Prada & Graciana Rucci & Sergio S. Urzúa, 2015. "The Effect of Mandated Child Care on Female Wages in Chile," NBER Working Papers 21080, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Anda David & Charbel Nahas & Björn Nilsson & Mohamed Ali Marouani, 2018. "The economics of the Syrian refugee crisis in neighboring countries," Working Papers hal-04000224, HAL.
    12. Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza & Luis C. Carvajal-Osorio, 2020. "Two Stories of Wage Dynamics in Latin America: Different Policies, Different Outcomes," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 128-168, June.
    13. Auerbach, Paula & Genoni, María Eugenia & Pagés, Carmen, 2005. "Social Security Coverage and the Labor Market in Developing Countries," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1111, Inter-American Development Bank.
    14. Bosch, Mariano & Manacorda, Marco, 2008. "Minimum wages and earnings inequality in urban Mexico. Revisiting the evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19561, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Arias, Omar & Blom, Andreas & Bosch, Mariano & Cunningham, Wendy & Fiszbein, Ariel & Lopez Acevedo, Gladys & Maloney, William & Saavedra, Jaime & Sanchez-Paramo, Carolina & Santamaria, Mauricio & Siga, 2005. "Pending issues in protection, productivity growth, and poverty reduction," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3799, The World Bank.
    16. Kugler, Adriana D., 2005. "Wage-shifting effects of severance payments savings accounts in Colombia," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 487-500, February.
    17. Jorge Andrés Tamayo, 2008. "La tasa natural de desempleo en Colombia y sus determinantes," Borradores de Economia 491, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    18. Pandelis Mitsis, 2019. "The Impact of the Minimum Wage on Wages and Work in Cyprus," Cyprus Economic Policy Review, University of Cyprus, Economics Research Centre, vol. 13(2), pages 72-101, December.
    19. Freeman, Richard B., 2010. "Labor Regulations, Unions, and Social Protection in Developing Countries," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4657-4702, Elsevier.
    20. ArnabK. Basu & NancyH. Chau & Ravi Kanbur, 2010. "Turning a Blind Eye: Costly Enforcement, Credible Commitment and Minimum Wage Laws," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(543), pages 244-269, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:32:y:2004:i:1:p:59-86. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CODS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.