Policy In Mexico Research Articles

Framing and assessing classroom opportunity to learn: the case of Mexico

Educational policy in Mexico and throughout Latin America is shifting focus from school access to school quality. Improving ‘quality’ is often interpreted as enhancing student learning opportunities, but three issues remain unresolved: (a) what constitutes opportunity to learn (OTL) in classrooms; (b) how to assess classroom OTL (COTL); and (c) how to address cultural and contextual differences. We synthesise international research to propose a framework of COTL, with implications for assessment and improvement. We discuss the case of Mexico, and identify three COTL elements: instructional time, generic quality and local quality. Instructional time addresses ‘how much’ opportunity children are provided to participate in classroom activities. Generic quality addresses ‘how well’ learning opportunities are delivered. And local quality – especially critical for rural and indigenous Mexican children – considers ‘how meaningfully’ opportunities are instantiated. We identify challenges and opportunities for COTL assessment, as well as their relevance to needed improvements.

Propuesta para el analisis de la politica fiscal

El trabajo que se presenta, tiene por objetivo analizar la política fiscal en México. Este análisis pretende ser el fundamento teórico-conceptual que como estructura medular sirva de base para la investigación sobre política fiscal en México. Aunque la situación puede parecer muy compleja, la investigación parte del supuesto que la aplicación de la actual políticas fiscal federal tiene implicaciones en el desarrollo económico en general. Se incluye los estudios empíricos sobre el tema a tratar, así como el modelo de política fiscal.

Public policies on the use of drugs in Mexico and Latin America

Recently, there has been a more profound political debate in Latin American countries around the possibilities of legal regulation and decriminalization of currently controlled drugs, particularly cannabis. This debate is a complex one that deals with a growing drug trade towards North America and Europe, as well as oversaturated judicial and health systems across Latin America. Mexico's role in the production and/or distribution of controlled drugs has been recognized for many years, but only recently has Mexico’s own problematic use of drugs, especially in the cities of the northern and southern borders, been raised as an issue. Drug policy in Mexico has a long history, which can only be understood in its political and economic contexts and its relations with the United States. Mexican drug policy is stipulated in several legal documents such as the Constitution, the General Health Law and specific Official Mexican Standards, amongst others. In these documents possession, use and sale of drugs are considered illegal, but in case of some drugs like cannabis, cocaine, opium, heroin, MDA, MDMA, Meth (crystal), and LSD, the maximum amount that an individual may possess for personal use is stipulated. Currently, there are controversies in Mexico regarding exempting the use of certain drugs (especially cannabis) for medical indications as well as increasing the maximum amounts under which possession is deemed for personal use whilst reducing the penalty in case of personal use in small doses.

Investment, asset market, and the relative unit labor cost in Mexico

The paper estimates equations for the Mexican/US manufacturing relative unit labor cost (RULC), and finds significant effects from asset market variables like interest rate differentials, foreign reserve accumulation, and international capital flows. The equations are motivated by a simple decomposition that reveals the roles played by relative manufacturing prices and real product wages—and hence the nominal exchange rate—in the upward trend of RULC. The paper follows to estimate equations for aggregate private investment in Mexico, finding a negative RULC effect that agrees with the recent literature on the real exchange rate’s profitability (or development) channel. All the estimations focus on long-run effects, applying the bounds testing approach to quarterly data from 1988 to 2013. The results imply that both the repeated surges in capital inflows and the disinflationary stance of monetary policy in Mexico contributed to the upward trend in RULC, which affected the country’s economic growth negatively by its depressing effect on investment.

México frente a la crisis económica y la amenaza de la Segunda Guerra Mundial: la controversia racial y de ciudadanía (1930-1942)

La política diplomática y migratoria mexicana a finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX, se caracterizó por fomentar el respeto y colaboración entre naciones, velar por las garantías y derechos de las personas, así como respetar la vida e intereses de los extranjeros que llegaban al territorio nacional.Sin embargo, para la primera mitad del siglo XX la política migratoria del gobierno mexicano contradijo en muchos sentidos al espíritu con el que se había constituido. El discurso oficial mexicano se movió entre la xenofilia y la xenofobia, ambivalencia que descansó en intereses políticos, económicos y raciales; así como en el esfuerzo por regular el papel de los extranjeros insertos en el país.Este artículo se desarrolla en torno a dos hechos históricos que determinaron ampliamente en las políticas migratoria, diplomática y de integración social en México: la crisis económica internacional de 1929 y el estallido de la Segunda Guerra Mundial en 1939.

La militarización, un obstáculo para la gobernanza democrática de la seguridad en México

<p>La bibliografía especializada coincide en que la evolución de la política de seguridad en México corresponde a un proceso de militarización. De un lado, este proceso se ha caracterizado por la reconstitución de las instituciones y organizaciones militares en ejes centrales de la política de seguridad, y de otro, por la adopción de lógicas y prácticas castrenses por los actores e instituciones civiles. En este artículo analizamos el caso de México desde una noción de militarización inspirada en los conceptos de campo organizacional y cambio isomorfo del nuevo institucionalismo sociológico. Esta aproximación teórica<br />permite integrar las transformaciones mencionadas, como procesos interdependientes, en una reconfiguración general del campo organizacional de la seguridad en México. Un proceso en el que las organizaciones e instituciones civiles involucradas sufren procesos de cambio isomorfo, relacionados con la constitución de las Fuerzas Armadas como actor<br />hegemónico y que como parte de la reorientación de tipo castrense de los componentes civiles del campo, los componentes militares también cambian. Derivado del análisis del caso, discutimos la manera en que las modificaciones de los actores civiles y militares constriñen su capacidad para proponer e instrumentar acciones que reorienten el campo<br />hacia esquemas democráticos. En este artículo identificamos cuatro obstáculos, tanto institucionales como simbólicos, para la gobernanza democrática de la seguridad en México:<br />a) cesión del control civil, b) relaciones jerárquicas entre los actores hegemónicos y periféricos del campo, c) una organización centralizada del campo y d) la acción totalizante de una legitimidad centrada en la retórica de la eficiencia militar. Argumentamos que estos cuatro elementos, junto con la escalada de violencia e impunidad frente a la violación<br />sistemática de los derechos humanos, así como la progresiva retirada del Estado mexicano de sus funciones sociales, contribuyen a consolidar la trayectoria de la militarización del<br />campo de la seguridad en México, lo que disminuye cada vez más la probabilidad de su reorientación democrática.</p>

Propuesta para el análisis de la política fiscal

El trabajo que se presenta, tiene por objetivo analizar la política fiscal en México. Este análisis pretende ser el fundamento teórico-conceptual que como estructura medular sirva de base para la investigación sobre política fiscal en México. Aunque la situación puede parecer muy compleja, la investigación parte del supuesto que la aplicación de la actual políticas fiscal federal tiene implicaciones en el desarrollo económico en general. Se incluye los estudios empíricos sobre el tema a tratar, así como el modelo de política fiscal.

Food deserts or food swamps?: A mixed-methods study of local food environments in a Mexican city

Differential access to healthy foods has been hypothesized to contribute to disparities in eating behaviors and health outcomes. While food deserts have been researched extensively in developed Anglophone countries, evidence from low- and middle-income countries is still scarce. In Mexico, prevalence of obesity is among the highest worldwide. As obesity has increased nationally and become a widespread public health issue, it is becoming concentrated in the low-income population. This mixed-methods study uses a multidimensional approach to analyze food environments in a low-, middle-, and high-income community in a Mexican city. The study advances understanding of the role that food environments may play in shaping eating patterns by analyzing the density and proximity of food outlet types as well as the variety, quantity, quality, pricing, and promotion of different foods. These measures are combined with in-depth qualitative research with families in the communities, including photo elicitation, to assess perceptions of food access. The central aims of the research were to evaluate physical and economic access and exposure to healthy and unhealthy foods in communities of differing socioeconomic status as well as participants' subjective perceptions of such access and exposure. The findings suggest a need to reach beyond a narrow focus on food store types and the distance from residence to grocery stores when analyzing food access. Results show that excessive access and exposure to unhealthy foods and drinks, or “food swamps,” may be a greater concern than food deserts for obesity-prevention policy in Mexico.

Inequality and minimum wage policy: Not even talking, much less walking in Mexico

This paper examines the evolution of economic inequality in Mexico in the last three decades, both in terms of the personal distribution and the functional distribution of income, partly exploring the question of how much of its evolution is determined by economic or social policies. The second purpose of our paper is to analyze the relation between the evolution of the functional distribution of income and labor policy, with special emphasis on minimum wage policy. Finally our third objective, closely linked to the previous two, is the examination of the institutional context as well as the ideological and political economy considerations that have marked minimum wage policy in Mexico in view of the successful attempt to bring the debate back to the forefront of the political agenda. As such, our analysis will pay special attention to events since May 1st 2014, when the Chief of the Government of Mexico City launched a national discussion on the urgent need, ways and means to renovate minimum wage policy in Mexico. In our view, this debate is perhaps the only recent expression in Mexico of the current re-found concerted focus on inequality on a global scale, an expression that has woken up fierce opposition from key sectors of the Mexican elite and highly placed government officers in the current administration.

Inequality and minimum wage policy in Mexico: A comment

While its structure is not that of a typical research paper, this work by Krozer, Moreno and Rubio (2015) makes a contribution to the recent debate about raising the minimum wage in Mexico. The paper provides a comprehensive account of the evolution of income distribution in Mexico as measured by the Gini index, poverty headcount, income per capita across deciles, top and bottom income shares, and, most importantly, the functional distribution of household income (labor, capital and transfer income components). In general, in this policy-oriented paper the authors argue in favor of a minimum wage raise and advocate in the conclusions for a minimum wage initiative approval in the near future...

Entanglements of Periphery and Informality in Mexico City

AbstractMexico City is a well‐known case of urban expansion. Most of the growth has been in its peripheries, occurring during two phases of housing privatization: a predominantly self‐built urbanization by residents establishing irregular settlements (starting in the 1930s); and a relatively recent surge of mass‐produced small‐scale single‐family housing built by state‐sponsored development companies (underway since the year 2000). Informality, we argue, should not be understood as a mode of housing production setting in opposition self‐build practices against industry‐led and/or state‐sponsored processes, but rather as a dialectical urbanization logic shaped by the entanglements of in/formal processes in governance practices, land privatization and regularization, and urban infrastructure and services deficits. We are particularly interested in a dominant narrative whereby the embeddedness of informality is constantly underplayed and irregular settlements are cast as a residual category, a problem to tolerate or in need of intervention, or the inevitable combination of demographic growth and housing shortage, rather than the direct outcome of urban policies and development processes. Conversely, recent housing policy in Mexico is officially narrated as an economic stimulus, a means to control and order (irregular) urban expansion, and an impulse to democratize homeownership. Our discussion of the entanglements of informality in Mexico City is based on an extended literature review of academic articles and official reports (predominantly in English), supplemented by a series of street and neighborhood explorations (in the summers of 2012 and 2013) across the metropolis.

Ownership of Language in Yucatec Maya Revitalization Pedagogy

This classroom-based study examined a Yucatec Maya language course for teachers and the pedagogical implementation of national language policy in Mexico. Analysis of this teacher education program focused on various dimensions of teachers' Maya-language expertise, the teaching of the emergent standard Maya, and hegemonic constructions of Maya-speakers in language planning discourse. Ownership of language, defined as a speaker's authenticity and authority vis-à-vis the language, emerged as an important concern.

Central Bank Policies in Mexico: Targets, Instruments, and Performance

The central argument of this paper is that in pursuing low inflation as its single and exclusive goal, and given some characteristics of the Mexican economy – a large degree of trade openness, a relatively high pass through of exchange rate movements into prices, and a low direct sensitivity of aggregate demand to interest rates – monetary policy has generated a recurrent tendency toward real exchange rate appreciation with very adverse effects on economic growth. The paper also examines central bank’s intervention in the foreign exchange market and the effectiveness of sterilized intervention in affecting the real exchange rate and potentially overcoming the tendency to real appreciation.

Transatlantic Demographers: The Italian Influence over Population Policy in Mexico and Spain, 1930–1973

Transatlantic Demographers: The Italian Influence over Population Policy in Mexico and Spain, 1930–1973

Recurrent BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in Mexican women with breast cancer.

Germline mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes confer an estimated 58% to 80% lifetime risk of breast cancer. In general, screening is done for cancer patients if a relative has been diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer. There are few data on the prevalence of mutations in these genes in Mexican women with breast cancer and this hampers efforts to develop screening policies in Mexico. We screened 810 unselected women with breast cancer from three cities in Mexico (Mexico City, Veracruz, and Monterrey) for mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, including a panel of 26 previously reported mutations. Thirty-five mutations were identified in 34 women (4.3% of total) including 20 BRCA1 mutations and 15 BRCA2 mutations. Twenty-two of the 35 mutations were recurrent mutations (62.8%). Only five of the 34 mutation carriers had a first-degree relative with breast cancer (three with BRCA1 and two with BRCA2 mutations). These results support the rationale for a strategy of screening for recurrent mutations in all women with breast cancer in Mexico, as opposed to restricting screening to those with a sister or mother with breast or ovarian cancer. These results will impact cancer genetic testing in Mexico and the identification of at-risk individuals who will benefit from increased surveillance. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 24(3); 498-505. ©2014 AACR.

Policy for Promotion of Women’s Mental Health: Insight from Analysis of Policy on Postnatal Depression in Mexico

This article critically examines federal, state and facility-level policies, as well as clinical practice guidelines regarding postnatal depression in Mexico. Thirteen documents including national health plans, national action plans, federal and state laws and regulations, clinical practice guidelines, and public-sector healthcare facility policies were collected and evaluated according to whether they included a statement of intent and/or actions related to the care of women at risk for or experiencing postnatal depression. While postnatal depression is included in several policies in Mexico, it is not addressed in ways that guide actions to manage postnatal depression. Specific direction on postnatal depression in policies would bridge a gap in maternal mental healthcare given that medication, treatment, and timing of interventions is unique in the postpartum context.

Las políticas alimentarias de México: un análisis de su marco regulatorio

This article aims to analyze the legal framework for food policy in Mexico in particular aims to discuss the distribution of powers and capabilities between the federal, state and municipal government. The findings indicates that there is a clear legal limbo of food policies of Mexico and not have enough tools to ensure that all Mexicans have access to a minimum food levels. In the part of the distribution of capabilities, the federal government has monopolized the actions related to food production through the provisions of the National Development Plan but without effective implementation. So it is highly recommended the development of a project to enhance the production and distribution of food in Mexico, which clearly establishes guidelines to follow among the three levels of government that favors the acquisition of better results in the food issue.

Effectiveness of Greenhouse Gases Reduction Strategies and Policies in Mexico

Effectiveness of Greenhouse Gases Reduction Strategies and Policies in Mexico

El impacto de los gastos catastróficos como amenaza existencial para las familias no asalariadas en el área metropolitana de la ciudad de México

determinar el impacto de gastos catastróficos por motivos de salud sobre la atención médica y gastos educativos privados en población no asalariada de México. estudio transversal. Durante 2010 se realizaron entrevistas cara a cara y semiestructuradas en familias no asalariadas de la ciudad de México. se realizaron entrevistas en un total de 133 hogares (la edad promedio fue de 43.5 años y 60% fueron mujeres); 30% de los entrevistados mencionó que los tratamientos médicos que necesitaron debieron ser prematuramente terminados o nunca pudieron ser iniciados, debido a los elevados gastos que implicaban. A través de este método se pudo demostrar una relación negativa entre gastos catastróficos y gastos educativos privados en los hogares con gastos catastróficos (p < 0.001). en la población de la ciudad de México los gastos catastróficos juegan un papel importante en la atención médica, consecuentemente, las políticas económicas en México deberían suministrar programas que cubran de manera suficiente los gastos de salud. to determine the impact of catastrophic expenses on account of health care and private educational expenses in self-employed population of Mexico. cross-sectional study. In 2010, face to face and semi-structured interviews were conducted in self-employed families of Mexico City. interviews were conducted in a total of 133 homes (the average age was 43.5 years and 60% were women); 30% of those mentioned that medical treatments needed could be prematurely terminated or could never be started, due to the high costs involved. A negative relationship between catastrophic expenses and private education expenses in households with catastrophic expenses (p < 0.001) could be demonstrated through this method. in the population of Mexico City catastrophic expenses play an important role in health care, as a result, economic policies in Mexico should provide programs that sufficiently cover health costs. determinar o impacto de gastos catastróficos sobre os cuidados de saúde e gastos com a educação privada em população não-assalariados no México. estudo transversal. Em 2010, foram realizadas entrevistas face-a-face e semi-estruradas em famílias não assalariadas na cidade do México. as entrevistas foram realizadas em um total de 133 lares (a média de idade foi de 43.5 anos e 60% eram mulheres); 30% dos entrevistados mencionaram que tratamento médico que eles precisaram teve de ser encerrado prematuramente ou não chegou a ser iniciado devido aos altos custos envolvidos. Através deste método, fomos capazes de demonstrar uma relação negativa entre gastos catastróficos e educacionais privados em domicílios com gastos catastróficos (p < 0.001). na população da cidade do México os gastos catastróficos desempenhar um papel importante no tratamento médico. Consequentemente, as políticas econômicas do México deveriam oferecer programas que atendam os custos dos cuidados de saúde necessários.

Male Partner Risk Behaviors Are Associated With Reactive Rapid HIV Antibody Tests Among Pregnant Mexican Women: Implications for Prevention of Vertical and Sexual HIV Transmission in Concentrated HIV Epidemics

Mexico's policies on antenatal HIV testing are contradictory, and little is known about social and behavioral characteristics that increase pregnant Mexican women's risks of acquiring HIV. We analyzed the association between risk behaviors reported by pregnant women for themselves and their male partners, and women's rapid HIV antibody test results from a large national sample. Three quarters of pregnant women with a reactive test did not report risk behaviors for themselves and one third did not report risk behaviors for themselves or their male partners. In the retrospective case-control analysis, other than reporting multiple sexual partners, reactive pregnant women reported risk behaviors did not differ from nonreactive women's behaviors. However, reactive pregnant women were significantly more likely to have reported risk behaviors for male partners. Our findings support universal offer of antenatal HIV testing and suggest that HIV prevention for women should focus on reducing risk of HIV acquisition within stable relationships.