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Jim Gerber

San Diego State University, Economics, Emeritus

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I am Professor of Economics, Emeritus, from San Diego State University. I write about the economics and economic history of the U.S.-Mexico border and U.S.-Mexico relations. My next book (University of Arizona Press, 2024) is Border Economies: Cities Bridging the U.S._Mexico Divide. I will be a Visiting Scholar at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (University of California, San Diego) in 2023-24, and am currently a Nonresident Scholar at the Center for U.S. and Mexico in the Baker Institute for Public Policy (Rice University).
Phone: 858-449-2658
Address: San Diego, CA

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University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)

Ernesto Castaneda

American University

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Eduardo Domenech

Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

Heidi Jane Smith

Universidad Iberoamericana - Mexico

Maria Antonieta Del Tedesco Lins

Universidade de São Paulo

SOAS University of London

Christy (Chryssanthi) Petropoulou

University of the Aegean

Ana Rita Gil, PhD

Universidade de Lisboa

Luis de la Calle

Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico

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Papers by Jim Gerber

Does Mexico need free trade with the United States?

Estudios Fronterizos, Apr 29, 2022

Free trade between the United States and Mexico is credited with having developed one of the larg... more Free trade between the United States and Mexico is credited with having developed one of the largest bilateral trading relationships in the world. Yet Mexico-United States trade has been significant for more than a century. Our objective is to show how bilateral trade increased independently of the trade agreement that took effect in 1994, and to specify the other reasons why trade grew. We measure trade flows from the 1880s to the present and estimate a gravity model for the period 1948-2006. The gravity model shows that the fundamental characteristics of Mexico and the United States explain the volume of trade independently of the trade agreement. The trade agreement reduced uncertainty which likely had a positive effect on trade flows. Our analysis does not estimate the quantitative impact of reduced uncertainty but shows that proximity and size of the market were more significant that the trade agreement.

Human and Physical Infrastructure Along the U.S. Border with Mexico

Binational research paper supporting the study "Developing the U.S.-Mexico Border Region for... more

Re-Imagining the U.S.-Mexico Border: Policies toward a More Competitive and Sustainable Transborder Region

Global Economy Journal, Dec 1, 2010

The U.S.-Mexico border region has two important but often overlooked characteristics. First, it i... more The U.S.-Mexico border region has two important but often overlooked characteristics. First, it is the physical place of most of the integration between the United States and Mexico, including market driven integration such as trade flows, migration, and investment as well as policy driven integration such as security cooperation, infrastructure development, and emergency response. Second, the border region has a growing transnational population that lives, works, goes to school, and participates in family and social networks on both sides of the border. Recent U.S. policy has hardened the border in response to concerns about terrorism, drug and human trafficking, undocumented migration, and arms smuggling. The consequences of these policies include disruption of the ongoing economic integration, large external costs imposed on the growing transnational population, and barriers to progress on a number of issues of national importance, including dispute resolution, migration, and environmental management, among others. The paper identifies and discusses the advantages of the three different definitions of the border in current usage: counties and municipios that touch the border; the 100 kilometer boundary first set by the La Paz Agreement and later amended to 300 kilometers in Mexico and 100 in the U.S.; and the ten states that are along the border. The hardening of the border is partly the result of a lack of border institutions and the inability of border residents to speak in a common voice when they talk to their capitals. This is changing, however, as new institutions such as the Border Governors Conference take on a more active role in promoting the interests of border states and border regions. An examination of a recent Delphi survey of border decision-makers shows a high degree of cross border agreement on the goals and needs of the region in key areas such as competitiveness, security, and sustainability.

Trade as an Agency of Social Policy

NAFTA in Transition

Gold rushes and the trans-Pacific wheat trade: : California and Australia, 1848–57

International Economics, eBook, Global Edition

North American Economic Integration

Law and Contemporary Problems, 1981

THE IDEA OF INTEGRATION Economic integration of the three North American countries, Canada, Mexic... more THE IDEA OF INTEGRATION Economic integration of the three North American countries, Canada, Mexico and the United States, is not an entirely new idea. Particularly in Canada there has been a long standing interest in, and controversy about, closer economic ties wth the United States. In the automotive industry free trade has already been established between the two countries. This is not surprising, given the fact that each of the two countries is the most important trading partner of the other. Adding Mexico to the equation is more novel. But even here one may note the large scale mobility of labor from Mexico to the United States (both legal and illegal) and the considerable flow of investment capital from the United States to its southern neighbor. Yet formal integration of the three countries must still be considered an idea whose time has not arrived. Political, economic and even emotional animosities in Mexico towards the United States are all too well known. Even in Canada there is widespread fear that with integration "Canadians will become hewers of wood and drawers of water."' In both cases there is a rational or irrational fear of the economic giant across the border. Integration in other parts of the world has usually occurred among countries smaller and more equal in size and economic development than would be the case in North America. However, the future may bring fresh impetus to integration. Increased military, political and economic pressures around the globe may drive the three countries closer together (although, admittedly, it may also pull them apart). The discovery of new energy sources in Mexico, Alaska (which is separated by Canada from the "lower" 48 states) and Canada, may dictate closer cooperation in investments, production and consumption in decades of increasing energy scarcity. The same may be said about other primary commodities. Migration pressure of Mexican workers may also dictate closer cooperation. Paradoxical as it may seem, pressure for secession in Quebec province may drive the Western and "far eastern" provinces of Canada to form closer economic ties with the United States. In a more general way, exploration of ideas often precedes political action by

Data for U.S.-Mexico Border Studies

Binational Commons, 2020

A comparison of US and Mexican data sources for studying the US-Mexico border.

Recession and Restructuring in the California Economy, 1990-1995

This article begins by describing the effects on California of the recession which began in 1990.... more This article begins by describing the effects on California of the recession which began in 1990. It examines the impacts on income, employment, and the housing market, and relates these shortrun, cyclical changes to the long-run trends in manufacturing, international trade, and the development of high-technology manufacturing. The core idea of the paper is that the national recession which began in 1990 lasted three years longer in California than in the nation as a whole due to the greater restructuring of the state’s economy. While painful, the restructuring put the state ahead of much of the rest of the nation in meeting the challenges of technological and international change. Several challenges remain for the state, however. These include the growth of inequality, fiscal instability in the state’s finances, deteriorating infrastructure and a educational systems, and a rising level of intolerance towards new immigrants.

The US Panic of 1907 and the Coming of the Mexican Revolution

Speculation about the causal relationship between the US panic of 1907 and the Mexican Revolution... more Speculation about the causal relationship between the US panic of 1907 and the Mexican Revolution of 1910 has generated many hypotheses. We review the hypotheses of contemporary observers and recent historians. Our analysis begins with a timeline of events in both countries and then examines the available data for activities that are theoretically possible avenues for the international transmission of economic events, including trade and investment. Mexican wages, banking, and government debt levels are also examined for signs of stress. We conclude that the US panic and recession had little effect on revolutionary conditions in Mexico.

Strangers on familiar soil: rediscovering the Chile-California connection

Choice Reviews Online, 2016

Only recently have social and cultural historians begun to show serious interest in some of more ... more Only recently have social and cultural historians begun to show serious interest in some of more mundane and ubiquitous features of the built environment. Yet structures, such as balconies, as Cowan has demonstrated, were more than just architectural ornaments; they played a central role in the practices constituting everyday life and, as in the case of the doors and gateways that are the subject of this book, represent an immensely fruitful site for interdisciplinary investigation. 1 The "spatial turn" across the social sciences generated an accentuated awareness of the importance of boundaries between different kinds of space-public and private, sacred and profane, rural and urban, domestic and foreign-and their function in political and social life and cultural practices. Moreover, the new focus on "emotion" has heightened awareness of the complex feelings invoked by place. These themes run through Jütte's book, which addresses the "question of how the door achieved the crucial role it has played in Western culture toward the constitution of the categories of internal and external" (17). In his richly detailed study, Jütte proceeds to analyze the technological and material development of doors and doorways, together with architraves, hinges, knockers, locks, and keys. Ranging from humble domestic portals to magnificent church doors, princely entrances, and imposing city gates, he paints a vivid picture of their stories and their roles in cultural history and everyday life. Focusing primarily on early modern Europe, with occasional forays deeper into the past and other cultures (notably Japan), Jütte borrows from anthropology and early modern political, religious, social, and cultural history to examine doors not only as physical gateways but also as sites of power, inclusion, and exclusion and as signifiers of separation and hierarchy that created distinctions with deep moral and ideological dimensions. The doors of the past, like the portals of the contemporary web, were sites of passage and liminality, embodying people's hopes and anxieties. They represented gateways to other worlds, both material and metaphysical, rich in symbolic meanings-hence their popularity with artists, who often used them as allegorical devices. Historically, doors hosted special events, such as the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg where Martin Luther was supposed to have posted his Ninety-Five Theses. However, as Jütte skilfully shows, even such exceptional events were embedded in the complex network of social and cultural practices constituting everyday life. Not surprisingly, the door is best understood as a "social and cultural convention" embedded in a "wider context of cultural and everyday history" (10).

Import Substitution Industrialization

Handbook on International Trade Policy

The Agrocontrol project aims to identify soil variables that influence the development of the vin... more The Agrocontrol project aims to identify soil variables that influence the development of the vineyard, grape quality and therefore wine quality. Application of Principal Component Analysis allowed to "reduce" the problem dimensionality in relation to soil variables analyzed and to identify those that most influence the total variability of the data. The Cluster Analysis allowed grouping, in each study plot, the areas with similar characteristics concerning these variables. The determination of correlations between the main components of soil and the physico-chemical properties of must and vigor and productivity of the vineyard allowed to identify which soil variables most affect the balance of the vine growing and wine quality for one year study.

The structure of US outward foreign direct investment in Mexico's export processing industry

International Conference of the Latin American Studies …, 2001

44 James Gerber Much of the literature on production sharing in general, and Mexico's case i... more

Initiative, Paternalism, and Race Relations: Charleston's Avery Normal Institute

The American Historical Review, 1991

The Gold Rush Origins of California’s Wheat Economy

América Latina en la Historia Económica, 2010

AMériCA lAtinA en lA historiA eConóMiCA, núM. 34 Resumen Este ensayo explora el casi simultáneo d... more AMériCA lAtinA en lA historiA eConóMiCA, núM. 34 Resumen Este ensayo explora el casi simultáneo desarrollo de la fiebre de oro y la producción de cereales en la década de 1850 en California. Modelos económicos predicen que la producción de bienes de consumo, como el trigo, no se puede expandir durante un auge del sector minero si existe una fácil disponibilidad de importación, debido a que los costos del trabajo y otros insumos son altos. Diversos historiadores han enfatizado los impactos de la inmigración y el crecimiento del mercado local. Una mirada más cercana del tiempo y la secuencia de los cambios en la producción muestran que un declive de la producción de los bienes comerciales concuerdan relativamente bien con el caso californiano. Sin embargo, hubo fenómenos adicionales que facilitaron el crecimiento de la producción del trigo y otros cereales, incluyendo los cambios tecnológicos en el sector minero, el empleo de población indígena, el relativo aislamiento de California en la economía atlántica del norte y el descubrimiento de oro en Australia.

Is the downturn in maquiladora employment cyclical or structural?

Indian Growth and Development Review, 2010

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of cyclical and structural factors on t... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of cyclical and structural factors on the decline of maquiladora employment. In addition to the US industrial production, the cyclical factors examined are relative Mexican US wages, the Mexican exchange rate relative to the US, and US foreign direct investment (FDI). The paper also explores the effect of competition from China, a structural effect, on the decline of maquiladora employment.Design/methodology/approachA vector error correction (VEC) model of maquila employment for the period 1980‐2002 is estimated and controlled for US industrial production, FDI flows, relative wage rates of Mexico and USA. To empirically investigate the structural differences of lower costs in Mexico vs China a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) is estimated across three sectors: apparel and textile, electronic, and transportation.FindingsFrom the VEC maquila employment model it is found that, in addition to the strong effect of US industria...

Why isn’t Mexico on China’s Growth Path?

espanolSe utiliza un marco de contabilidad del crecimiento con datos procedentes de la Tabla Mund... more espanolSe utiliza un marco de contabilidad del crecimiento con datos procedentes de la Tabla Mundial de Penn para desagrupar y comparar el crecimiento economico en Mejico y China, 1953-2007. China supera a Mejico tanto en acumulacion de capital fisico como en crecimiento del factor de productividad total, lo que implica que las elevadas tasas de ahorro son parcialmente responsables de las diferencias de crecimiento; no obstante, las fuerzas adicionales tambien son importantes. El catalogo de variables potenciales es amplio; este trabajo se concentra en la geografia (ubicacion) y las instituciones. En concreto, la capacidad del estado chino y sus autoridades locales para respaldar el crecimiento economico es sorprendente. EnglishA growth accounting framework is used with data from the Penn World Table to disaggregate and compare economic growth in Mexico and China, 1953-2007. China surpasses Mexico in both the accumulation of physical capital and the growth of total factor productivi...

National Policies and the Limits of International Integration

The Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, 2000

In spite of the rapid growth of merchandise trade since the end of World War II, the world econom... more In spite of the rapid growth of merchandise trade since the end of World War II, the world economy is far from integrated. Services trade, capital flows, population migration, and price differences demonstrate far more scope for international economic integration. Even among nations with preferential trade agreements, networks of merchandise trade relations are far denser intra-nationally than internationally. The absence of goods trade predicted by trade models when nations have few policy barriers implies that crossing national boundaries is a significant indicator of increased transaction costs. These patterns have caused the world trade agenda to examine some unintended trade restrictions which make up a part of national domestic policies. This focus is apparent in current negotiations such as the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement. New items for negotiation include product standards, competition policies, services, and investment policies. Most contentious are labor and envir...

Regional Advantages: Why U.S.–Mexico Trade Is Robust and Permanent

New Frontiers in Regional Science: Asian Perspectives

Governed and ungoverned integration in the Mexico–US border region

Regions and Cohesion

English abstract: US cities and towns on the border with Mexico tend to have below-average income... more English abstract: US cities and towns on the border with Mexico tend to have below-average incomes, while Mexican border cities and towns tend to be above the average of Mexico. Social scientists have not explained these differences from national averages in a convincing way. Nor have they described the characteristics of border cities and towns in ways that differentiate them from cities and towns in the interiors of their respective nation. The key to both puzzles is the fact that the institutional environment in the US–Mexico border region is binational in origin. Mexican institutions create externalities in the United States and vice versa. Recognition of this fact is a first step in dealing with the international public goods and common pool resources of the border region.Spanish abstract: Ciudades y pueblos a ambos lados de la frontera México–EE. UU. comparten características que las hacen diferentes de las comunidades en el interior de sus respectivas naciones. Por ejemplo, l...

Does Mexico need free trade with the United States?

Estudios Fronterizos, Apr 29, 2022

Free trade between the United States and Mexico is credited with having developed one of the larg... more Free trade between the United States and Mexico is credited with having developed one of the largest bilateral trading relationships in the world. Yet Mexico-United States trade has been significant for more than a century. Our objective is to show how bilateral trade increased independently of the trade agreement that took effect in 1994, and to specify the other reasons why trade grew. We measure trade flows from the 1880s to the present and estimate a gravity model for the period 1948-2006. The gravity model shows that the fundamental characteristics of Mexico and the United States explain the volume of trade independently of the trade agreement. The trade agreement reduced uncertainty which likely had a positive effect on trade flows. Our analysis does not estimate the quantitative impact of reduced uncertainty but shows that proximity and size of the market were more significant that the trade agreement.

Human and Physical Infrastructure Along the U.S. Border with Mexico

Binational research paper supporting the study "Developing the U.S.-Mexico Border Region for... more

Re-Imagining the U.S.-Mexico Border: Policies toward a More Competitive and Sustainable Transborder Region

Global Economy Journal, Dec 1, 2010

The U.S.-Mexico border region has two important but often overlooked characteristics. First, it i... more The U.S.-Mexico border region has two important but often overlooked characteristics. First, it is the physical place of most of the integration between the United States and Mexico, including market driven integration such as trade flows, migration, and investment as well as policy driven integration such as security cooperation, infrastructure development, and emergency response. Second, the border region has a growing transnational population that lives, works, goes to school, and participates in family and social networks on both sides of the border. Recent U.S. policy has hardened the border in response to concerns about terrorism, drug and human trafficking, undocumented migration, and arms smuggling. The consequences of these policies include disruption of the ongoing economic integration, large external costs imposed on the growing transnational population, and barriers to progress on a number of issues of national importance, including dispute resolution, migration, and environmental management, among others. The paper identifies and discusses the advantages of the three different definitions of the border in current usage: counties and municipios that touch the border; the 100 kilometer boundary first set by the La Paz Agreement and later amended to 300 kilometers in Mexico and 100 in the U.S.; and the ten states that are along the border. The hardening of the border is partly the result of a lack of border institutions and the inability of border residents to speak in a common voice when they talk to their capitals. This is changing, however, as new institutions such as the Border Governors Conference take on a more active role in promoting the interests of border states and border regions. An examination of a recent Delphi survey of border decision-makers shows a high degree of cross border agreement on the goals and needs of the region in key areas such as competitiveness, security, and sustainability.

Trade as an Agency of Social Policy

NAFTA in Transition

Gold rushes and the trans-Pacific wheat trade: : California and Australia, 1848–57

International Economics, eBook, Global Edition

North American Economic Integration

Law and Contemporary Problems, 1981

THE IDEA OF INTEGRATION Economic integration of the three North American countries, Canada, Mexic... more THE IDEA OF INTEGRATION Economic integration of the three North American countries, Canada, Mexico and the United States, is not an entirely new idea. Particularly in Canada there has been a long standing interest in, and controversy about, closer economic ties wth the United States. In the automotive industry free trade has already been established between the two countries. This is not surprising, given the fact that each of the two countries is the most important trading partner of the other. Adding Mexico to the equation is more novel. But even here one may note the large scale mobility of labor from Mexico to the United States (both legal and illegal) and the considerable flow of investment capital from the United States to its southern neighbor. Yet formal integration of the three countries must still be considered an idea whose time has not arrived. Political, economic and even emotional animosities in Mexico towards the United States are all too well known. Even in Canada there is widespread fear that with integration "Canadians will become hewers of wood and drawers of water."' In both cases there is a rational or irrational fear of the economic giant across the border. Integration in other parts of the world has usually occurred among countries smaller and more equal in size and economic development than would be the case in North America. However, the future may bring fresh impetus to integration. Increased military, political and economic pressures around the globe may drive the three countries closer together (although, admittedly, it may also pull them apart). The discovery of new energy sources in Mexico, Alaska (which is separated by Canada from the "lower" 48 states) and Canada, may dictate closer cooperation in investments, production and consumption in decades of increasing energy scarcity. The same may be said about other primary commodities. Migration pressure of Mexican workers may also dictate closer cooperation. Paradoxical as it may seem, pressure for secession in Quebec province may drive the Western and "far eastern" provinces of Canada to form closer economic ties with the United States. In a more general way, exploration of ideas often precedes political action by

Data for U.S.-Mexico Border Studies

Binational Commons, 2020

A comparison of US and Mexican data sources for studying the US-Mexico border.

Recession and Restructuring in the California Economy, 1990-1995

This article begins by describing the effects on California of the recession which began in 1990.... more This article begins by describing the effects on California of the recession which began in 1990. It examines the impacts on income, employment, and the housing market, and relates these shortrun, cyclical changes to the long-run trends in manufacturing, international trade, and the development of high-technology manufacturing. The core idea of the paper is that the national recession which began in 1990 lasted three years longer in California than in the nation as a whole due to the greater restructuring of the state’s economy. While painful, the restructuring put the state ahead of much of the rest of the nation in meeting the challenges of technological and international change. Several challenges remain for the state, however. These include the growth of inequality, fiscal instability in the state’s finances, deteriorating infrastructure and a educational systems, and a rising level of intolerance towards new immigrants.

The US Panic of 1907 and the Coming of the Mexican Revolution

Speculation about the causal relationship between the US panic of 1907 and the Mexican Revolution... more Speculation about the causal relationship between the US panic of 1907 and the Mexican Revolution of 1910 has generated many hypotheses. We review the hypotheses of contemporary observers and recent historians. Our analysis begins with a timeline of events in both countries and then examines the available data for activities that are theoretically possible avenues for the international transmission of economic events, including trade and investment. Mexican wages, banking, and government debt levels are also examined for signs of stress. We conclude that the US panic and recession had little effect on revolutionary conditions in Mexico.

Strangers on familiar soil: rediscovering the Chile-California connection

Choice Reviews Online, 2016

Only recently have social and cultural historians begun to show serious interest in some of more ... more Only recently have social and cultural historians begun to show serious interest in some of more mundane and ubiquitous features of the built environment. Yet structures, such as balconies, as Cowan has demonstrated, were more than just architectural ornaments; they played a central role in the practices constituting everyday life and, as in the case of the doors and gateways that are the subject of this book, represent an immensely fruitful site for interdisciplinary investigation. 1 The "spatial turn" across the social sciences generated an accentuated awareness of the importance of boundaries between different kinds of space-public and private, sacred and profane, rural and urban, domestic and foreign-and their function in political and social life and cultural practices. Moreover, the new focus on "emotion" has heightened awareness of the complex feelings invoked by place. These themes run through Jütte's book, which addresses the "question of how the door achieved the crucial role it has played in Western culture toward the constitution of the categories of internal and external" (17). In his richly detailed study, Jütte proceeds to analyze the technological and material development of doors and doorways, together with architraves, hinges, knockers, locks, and keys. Ranging from humble domestic portals to magnificent church doors, princely entrances, and imposing city gates, he paints a vivid picture of their stories and their roles in cultural history and everyday life. Focusing primarily on early modern Europe, with occasional forays deeper into the past and other cultures (notably Japan), Jütte borrows from anthropology and early modern political, religious, social, and cultural history to examine doors not only as physical gateways but also as sites of power, inclusion, and exclusion and as signifiers of separation and hierarchy that created distinctions with deep moral and ideological dimensions. The doors of the past, like the portals of the contemporary web, were sites of passage and liminality, embodying people's hopes and anxieties. They represented gateways to other worlds, both material and metaphysical, rich in symbolic meanings-hence their popularity with artists, who often used them as allegorical devices. Historically, doors hosted special events, such as the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg where Martin Luther was supposed to have posted his Ninety-Five Theses. However, as Jütte skilfully shows, even such exceptional events were embedded in the complex network of social and cultural practices constituting everyday life. Not surprisingly, the door is best understood as a "social and cultural convention" embedded in a "wider context of cultural and everyday history" (10).

Import Substitution Industrialization

Handbook on International Trade Policy

The Agrocontrol project aims to identify soil variables that influence the development of the vin... more The Agrocontrol project aims to identify soil variables that influence the development of the vineyard, grape quality and therefore wine quality. Application of Principal Component Analysis allowed to "reduce" the problem dimensionality in relation to soil variables analyzed and to identify those that most influence the total variability of the data. The Cluster Analysis allowed grouping, in each study plot, the areas with similar characteristics concerning these variables. The determination of correlations between the main components of soil and the physico-chemical properties of must and vigor and productivity of the vineyard allowed to identify which soil variables most affect the balance of the vine growing and wine quality for one year study.

The structure of US outward foreign direct investment in Mexico's export processing industry

International Conference of the Latin American Studies …, 2001

44 James Gerber Much of the literature on production sharing in general, and Mexico's case i... more

Initiative, Paternalism, and Race Relations: Charleston's Avery Normal Institute

The American Historical Review, 1991

The Gold Rush Origins of California’s Wheat Economy

América Latina en la Historia Económica, 2010

AMériCA lAtinA en lA historiA eConóMiCA, núM. 34 Resumen Este ensayo explora el casi simultáneo d... more AMériCA lAtinA en lA historiA eConóMiCA, núM. 34 Resumen Este ensayo explora el casi simultáneo desarrollo de la fiebre de oro y la producción de cereales en la década de 1850 en California. Modelos económicos predicen que la producción de bienes de consumo, como el trigo, no se puede expandir durante un auge del sector minero si existe una fácil disponibilidad de importación, debido a que los costos del trabajo y otros insumos son altos. Diversos historiadores han enfatizado los impactos de la inmigración y el crecimiento del mercado local. Una mirada más cercana del tiempo y la secuencia de los cambios en la producción muestran que un declive de la producción de los bienes comerciales concuerdan relativamente bien con el caso californiano. Sin embargo, hubo fenómenos adicionales que facilitaron el crecimiento de la producción del trigo y otros cereales, incluyendo los cambios tecnológicos en el sector minero, el empleo de población indígena, el relativo aislamiento de California en la economía atlántica del norte y el descubrimiento de oro en Australia.

Is the downturn in maquiladora employment cyclical or structural?

Indian Growth and Development Review, 2010

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of cyclical and structural factors on t... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of cyclical and structural factors on the decline of maquiladora employment. In addition to the US industrial production, the cyclical factors examined are relative Mexican US wages, the Mexican exchange rate relative to the US, and US foreign direct investment (FDI). The paper also explores the effect of competition from China, a structural effect, on the decline of maquiladora employment.Design/methodology/approachA vector error correction (VEC) model of maquila employment for the period 1980‐2002 is estimated and controlled for US industrial production, FDI flows, relative wage rates of Mexico and USA. To empirically investigate the structural differences of lower costs in Mexico vs China a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) is estimated across three sectors: apparel and textile, electronic, and transportation.FindingsFrom the VEC maquila employment model it is found that, in addition to the strong effect of US industria...

Why isn’t Mexico on China’s Growth Path?

espanolSe utiliza un marco de contabilidad del crecimiento con datos procedentes de la Tabla Mund... more espanolSe utiliza un marco de contabilidad del crecimiento con datos procedentes de la Tabla Mundial de Penn para desagrupar y comparar el crecimiento economico en Mejico y China, 1953-2007. China supera a Mejico tanto en acumulacion de capital fisico como en crecimiento del factor de productividad total, lo que implica que las elevadas tasas de ahorro son parcialmente responsables de las diferencias de crecimiento; no obstante, las fuerzas adicionales tambien son importantes. El catalogo de variables potenciales es amplio; este trabajo se concentra en la geografia (ubicacion) y las instituciones. En concreto, la capacidad del estado chino y sus autoridades locales para respaldar el crecimiento economico es sorprendente. EnglishA growth accounting framework is used with data from the Penn World Table to disaggregate and compare economic growth in Mexico and China, 1953-2007. China surpasses Mexico in both the accumulation of physical capital and the growth of total factor productivi...

National Policies and the Limits of International Integration

The Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, 2000

In spite of the rapid growth of merchandise trade since the end of World War II, the world econom... more In spite of the rapid growth of merchandise trade since the end of World War II, the world economy is far from integrated. Services trade, capital flows, population migration, and price differences demonstrate far more scope for international economic integration. Even among nations with preferential trade agreements, networks of merchandise trade relations are far denser intra-nationally than internationally. The absence of goods trade predicted by trade models when nations have few policy barriers implies that crossing national boundaries is a significant indicator of increased transaction costs. These patterns have caused the world trade agenda to examine some unintended trade restrictions which make up a part of national domestic policies. This focus is apparent in current negotiations such as the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement. New items for negotiation include product standards, competition policies, services, and investment policies. Most contentious are labor and envir...

Regional Advantages: Why U.S.–Mexico Trade Is Robust and Permanent

New Frontiers in Regional Science: Asian Perspectives

Governed and ungoverned integration in the Mexico–US border region

Regions and Cohesion

English abstract: US cities and towns on the border with Mexico tend to have below-average income... more English abstract: US cities and towns on the border with Mexico tend to have below-average incomes, while Mexican border cities and towns tend to be above the average of Mexico. Social scientists have not explained these differences from national averages in a convincing way. Nor have they described the characteristics of border cities and towns in ways that differentiate them from cities and towns in the interiors of their respective nation. The key to both puzzles is the fact that the institutional environment in the US–Mexico border region is binational in origin. Mexican institutions create externalities in the United States and vice versa. Recognition of this fact is a first step in dealing with the international public goods and common pool resources of the border region.Spanish abstract: Ciudades y pueblos a ambos lados de la frontera México–EE. UU. comparten características que las hacen diferentes de las comunidades en el interior de sus respectivas naciones. Por ejemplo, l...

Fifty Years of Change on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Chapter abstracts A Great Deal of Ruin Financial Crises since 1929

A Great Deal of Ruin: Financial Crises since 1929, 2019

History, economics, and finance are used to analyze financial crises since 1929. Part I begins wi... more History, economics, and finance are used to analyze financial crises since 1929. Part I begins with a taxonomy of financial crises and discussion of seven risk factors often observed prior to a crisis. It continues with a narrative history of modern economic growth since the first wave of globalization and a description of the frequencies and types of crises during each of the four major eras. Part 2 consists of five case studies with international reach that shaped understanding of the problems of financial crises and economic instability. The Great Depression of the 1930s is the first case study, followed by an examination of the Latin American Debt Crisis and a discussion of banking, currency, trade, and inflation crises that emerged nearly simultaneously. In the 1990s, the sudden and surprising development of crises in a group of successful Asian economies showed that good institutions and competent economic management are not always sufficient for crisis avoidance. The Subprime Crisis and its development into a debt crisis in the Eurozone are the subjects of the last two case studies. Part 3 offers eight lessons from these cases, with a heavy emphasis on lessons taken from the Subprime and Eurozone crises. Introduction The cost of a financial crisis far exceeds most people's expectations, even though they are surprisingly common. Crises are a regular part of market economies and more than 500 have been identified by the IMF as occurring between 1970 and 2011. They are currently impossible to predict, although risk reduction, and crisis mitigation are possible within the current state of economic understanding. Economics must be supplemented with finance and history, however, if it is to provide a complete picture of financial crises. Economic models and categories are essential but without a deeper dive into finance, the institutional characteristics of assets are ignored and the manner in which asset trades pose potential risks to the system is glossed over. Similarly, historical context makes clear the importance of power, deceptive practices, legal constraints and information limitations. The Introduction introduces the plan of the book and describes the general approach.

How the border works Draft Nov

Working paper, 2023

The US national narrative about the US-Mexico border is distorted for political reasons. The San... more