This paper seeks to explore the link between educational processes and Mexico's demographic dynamic. In the tradition of thought on population and development, it has been hypothesized that the population growth rate, family size and migration influence the accumulation of human capital among the school-age population. This study explores the link between the academic performance of youth between the age of 14 and 23 and the youth dependency ratio, teenage fertility and internal and international migration, using data aggregated at the municipal level for the year 2000. The analysis uses indicators on the educational supply at the municipal level based on the administrative statistics of the Public Education Secretariat (SEP).

"Vital statistics are the most comprehensive source of information on maternal mortality in Mexico.... It is clear that maternal mortality has decreased throughout the twentieth century and will continue to do so. There are signs of a higher underestimation of mortality [due to] abortion. And there are regional differentials of maternal mortality.... Professional and/or institutional attention during childbirth has a great impact on maternal mortality decline. There are also socio-economic differentials by marital status, milieu, and schooling...." (EXCERPT)

"We study...some of the repercussions of the crisis and economic restructuring on the manufacturing labour force in the main urban areas of Mexico. Using the data of the National Survey of Urban Employment for the period 1986-1992, we set, first of all, the evolution of female and male presence in the manufacture of the country's main industrial cities. Further, some of the characteristics of the manufacturing labour force in different types of cities are examined. For this purpose, we are considering several issues: the condition of wage earner and non-wage earner workers, the size of the establishment, some sociodemographic aspects (gender, age, schooling level, and condition of the head of household), as well as different aspects related to labour conditions (length of workday, job benefits, and salary levels)." (EXCERPT)

"With data from a survey applied to random samples of university professors in seven Mexican cities during the late eighties, this article examines professors' opinions on the relations between population, development, and poverty. After reviewing tendencies and arguments on population and development found in [the] literature, it provides three simple typologies of population consciousness, poverty determinants, and best economic development plans for the country. It then studies their relations, and concludes by outlining the type of reasoning in each of the main orientations detected by the analysis." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

This work explores the potential complementarity of the sociodemographic, psychoanthropological, and sociopsychoanalytical perspectives for achieving understanding of the individual and familial roots of demographic behavior. Examination of the sociodemographic focus was stimulated and enriched by a 1986 seminar that considered theoretical and methodological problems in the integration of demographic dynamics into social research. Specific questions raised concerned the advantages and shortcomings of attitude and opinion surveys, the specifics of microsocial investigation, and the importance of the family as a mediator between larger social influences and individual behavior. Reflections on the relevance of the psychoanthropological tradition to the problems of microsocial research were influenced by a work published in the mid 1960s by the anthropologist and psychoanalyst Devereux. The affective distancing and unconscious defensive reactions of the investigator must, according to Devereux, be taken into account but also offer rich possibilities for analysis. Devereux also stressed that the study of human behavior occurs in the context of a reciprocal relation between the observer and the observed, with the observed playing a far from passive role. The presence of the observer occasions certain reactions but also is a source of complementary and relevant data for the study of behavior. A third possibility suggested by Devereux is that of approaching the unconscious of the study subjects through examination of the anxiety and other unconscious reactions of the researcher. Interpretative questionnaires, finally, are a tool of the sociopsychoanalytical tradition of potential use in demographic study. Interpretative questionnaires are applied to individuals in order to study personal psychic aspects, but their goal is the study of the socioeconomic and cultural environment that molds the personal characteristics of the respondents.

This work examines the internal consistency of corrected estimates of the economically active population in the Mexican censuses of 1960 through 1980, estimates participation rates by age and sex for 1980, and determines the degree of overestimation or underestimation of the 1980 census. The first section reviews results of evaluations of information on the active population and examines the internal consistency of the different estimates. The second establishes criteria for correction of participation rates by age and sex for 1980 and estimates the degree of overestimation or underestimation, and the third assesses the advantages and limitations of the results. Comparison of results from several studies suggests that the labor force was significantly overestimated in the 1960 and 1980 censuses and underestimated in the censuses of 1970 and 1990. Estimates of overestimation in the 1960 census ranged from 8.5 to 14.3%, while estimates of underestimation in 1970 ranged from -0.5% to -0.8%. Estimates of overestimation in 1980 ranged from 6.6% to 21.6%. Internal consistency of labor force data was also assessed through a comparative analysis of average rates of growth of the population aged 12 and over and of the economically active population according to the census and the various corrections. The study concluded that the female labor force was overestimated by 1.6 million workers in 1980, or 27.1%, while the male labor force was overestimated by 610,000 workers, or 4%. The total labor force was overestimated by around 10%. These estimates for 1980 appear more congruent with general trends in male and female labor force participation, and also with the rate of growth of the population over age 12.

The author makes the case that none of the mathematical models currently in use for estimating population dynamics can be suitably applied to Mexico's natural growth "due to the fact that the assumptions underlying [their] mathematical representations do not correspond to the observed dynamics of the components of natural growth. The purpose of this article is to adjust a mathematical function to the evolution of Mexico's total population between 1930 and 1985, adequately reproducing the evolution of natality and mortality observed in that period." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

The relationship between fertility and income has been a preoccupation of demography since Malthus published the Principles of Population. Of the various approaches surveyed in this article, the economic analysis of fertility pioneered by Gary Becker based on neoclassical consumption theory argues the most strongly for a positive influence of income on fertility. Becker's model views children as consumer goods competing with alternative goods as parents attempt to maximize their utility or satisfaction. The indifference curves, budget lines and other analytical apparatus of microeconomic research are central to this approach. Blake and other opponents have questioned the appropriateness of microeconomic analysis in understanding family size and fertility. The theory of the demographic transition, unlike Becker's approach, views the income-fertility relationship as fundamentally negative. Although there is general consensus that the theory of demographic transition is a cornerstone of demography, there is less agreement as to its actual status. It appears to be less a truly developed theory based on a refined conceptual framework than a description or typology of apparent regularities observed in the past. Various authors have criticized specific elements of economic analysis of fertility. Okun rejected explanations of family size based on orthodox consumption theory because the costs of children, unlike the costs of consumer goods, are not the same for all households, while Mincer added analysis of opportunity costs, in this case referring essentially to the value of the time spent by mothers in child rearing instead of other activities. Several other analysts have suggested modification to the microeconomic approach. 2 recent reflections have contributed to an empirical and theortical synthesis of earlier work incorporating elements of demographic transition theory. Eva Mueller and Kathleen Short, in a work with considerable relevance to the Third World, have attempted to reconcile apparently contradictory findings by distinguishing between direct and indirect costs, by examining the time frame of references to income level, and by carefully distinguishing between macro- and microlevel studies conducted in rural or urban areas. Easterlin's work attempts to describe and explain the great fertility changes that occur in the process of modernization, including the fertility-income relationship. He includes in his analysis the supply of children--the number of surviving children a couple would have if they made no attempt to control their fertility--and the costs of fertility regulation. It appears from a review of this literature that the relationship between income and fertility is not universally either positive or negative. Economic analyses can contribute to clarification of the relative influence of income and other varibles that determine fertility levels and trends.