Structural change and productivity growth in Mexico, 1990–2014

Abstract

Mexico, as other Latin American countries, undertook far-reaching economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s in a wide array of areas. Over the past three decades, the Mexican economy has gone through a structural change and experienced a successful insertion into global markets. Yet productivity growth has been modest, leading to low and volatile economic growth. To examine the weak association between structural change and productivity growth, two features are studied: inter- and intra-industry transformations, and the contribution of production factors to value added growth. The paper shows that despite a significant reallocation of hours worked across industries, its aggregate impact has been hindered by the prevalence of flows from sectors with high labor productivity growth towards those with lower or declining productivity growth. In addition, highly qualified production factors (both labor and capital) have not showed a significant contribution to value added growth.