The Evolution of Poverty in Late 20th-Century Mexico

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the evolution of poverty in Mexico during the second half of the 20th century and points toward correlations between poverty trends and major changes to economic and social policy. Two poverty-measurement methods are used to construct a general vision of the evolution of poverty in Mexico: the poverty-line method and a variation of the unsatisfied-basic-needs method. The analysis based on the poverty-line method indicates that the incidence of poverty in Mexico decreased continuously and considerably during the last part of the import substituting industrialization (ISI) period (1963–1982), but that it has not decreased significantly since economic liberalization began in 1982; there is evidence to suggest that it has increased slightly since then. Alternatively, the analysis of basic need indicators suggests that there has been a constant and uninterrupted improvement in the satisfaction of basic needs in Mexico throughout the second half of the 20th century. However, it also indicates that the rate of satisfying basic needs has decelerated over the past two decades. Taking all of the empirical evidence presented in this paper into consideration, it appears that the social and economic policies put in place by the Mexican government over the past 20 years, have, by and large, been ineffective in reducing poverty.