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Explaining regional inequality from the periphery: The mexican case, 1900-2000

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  • José Aguilar Retureta

    (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

Economic Historians have paid close attention to the long term evolution of regional inequality. Nevertheless, so far research has largely focused on industrialised economies, neglecting to a large extent the experience of low- and middle-income countries. This paper aims to provide, using a new regional labour productivity database, evidence on the determinants of regional income inequality changes in Mexico from 1900 to the present. Different forces have driven regional inequality in each historical period. During the primary-export led-growth period of the first globalization (1900-1930) differences across regions in the intensity of structural change caused an increasing divergence. From 1930 to 1980, during the State-led Industrialisation, internal migrations contributed to a strong process of regional convergence in productivity, both in the within and the between-sector components of regional inequality. Finally, the increasing regional divergence that has taken place from 1980 onwards has been mainly an effect of the operation of labour productivity differentials within each sector.

Suggested Citation

  • José Aguilar Retureta, 2016. "Explaining regional inequality from the periphery: The mexican case, 1900-2000," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 1608, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.
    • Handle: RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1608
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic History; Economic Growth; Regional Income Inequality; Mexico.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N16 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • N96 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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