Services In Mexico Research Articles

Impact of services quality on customer satisfaction and repeat purchase attributes in hospitality industry

The hotel industry is globally experiencing the difficult task of managing changing demand governed by the brand switching behaviour of consumers. Under this competitive environment, hotels have two basic ways of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage within their product-line including low price, high quality and enhanced customer value. This study examines the relationships between customer satisfaction and repeat buying behaviour of consumers in regard to hotel services in Mexico. Authors argue that customer loyalty can be achieved by meticulously understanding customers' expectations, defining strategies to meet those expectations and continuously evaluating the performance to redefine the competitive strategies periodically.

Valuing Watershed Services in Mexico’s Temperate Forests

Water resources are highly valuable in arid, semiarid, or high-altitude areas where the sources are restricted to groundwater or flash floods occurred in short periods of time. In this paper, we present a case study where water is economically valued through nonmarket valuation techniques. A follow-up review of similarly-conducted case studies in Mexico was carried out to evaluate the potential relationships that elevation, moisture index, and human development index have over the economic value of water. The main factors influencing the value of water in our case study were income, education, age, and family size. Bivariate correlations of the case studies in the country suggest that there is no a significant relationship between water value and elevation, although there is some relationship between water value, moisture index, and the human development index. Dryer areas and more developed communities tend to pay more for an improvement in current water resources conditions. These results can help decision-makers to consider regional policies aimed to improve water management conditions in semiarid and less-developed communities in Mexico.

Cross-border utilization of health care: evidence from a population-based study in south Texas.

To assess the prevalence of health care utilization in Mexico by Texas border residents and to identify the main contributing factors to their cross-border utilization of health care services. This study used primary data from a population-based telephone survey that was conducted in the whole Texas border area in 2008. The survey included responses from 1,405 adults. Multivariate logistic regression models were estimated to determine predictors of utilizing a wide range of health care services in Mexico. Forty-nine percent of the sample reported having ever purchased medications in Mexico, followed by 41 percent for dentist visits, 37.3 percent for doctor visits, and 6.7 percent for inpatient care. The most significant predictors of health care utilization in Mexico were lack of U.S. health insurance coverage, dissatisfaction with the quality of U.S. health care, and poor self-rated health status. The high prevalence of use of health care services in Mexico by Texas border residents is suggestive of unmet needs in health care on the U.S. side of the border. Addressing these unmet needs calls for a binational approach to improve the affordability, accessibility, and quality of health care in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

Do Migrants Improve Their Hometowns? Remittances and Access to Public Services in Mexico, 1995-2000

How do citizens in developing countries access public services? Scholars study this question by emphasizing the role of government, measuring government performance as household access to public services, such as clean water and sanitation. However, the authors argue that the state does not hold a monopoly on provision of such utilities: Citizens in developing countries often turn to nonstate providers for basic utilities. In Mexico, the authors find that direct money transfers from migrants, known as remittances, are used to provide household access to public services. The statistical analysis across Mexico’s 2,438 municipalities demonstrates that citizens improve their own access. The results also contribute new evidence to the literature on remittances and development by offering a micro-level explanation for how remittances affect both the availability and the source of basic utilities. The findings suggest that the measures scholars typically associate with government performance may in fact capture nonstate provision of basic utilities.

Factores que afectan la demanda de agua para uso doméstico en México

En el presente estudio se calcula la demanda de agua para uso doméstico en la república mexicana, con bases de datos agregados a escala local. Resultaron significativos factores como la elasticidad precio estimada, de -0.33, y la elasticidad ingreso, de 0.2, entre otros asociados a la demanda, por lo que deben ser considerados en la planeación y administración de los servicios de agua potable en México.

Payments for Ecosystem Services in Mexico: Nature, Neoliberalism, Social Movements, and the State

Prominent advocates of payments for ecosystem services (PES) contend that markets in biodiversity, carbon storage, and hydrological services can produce both conservation and sustainable development. In Mexico's national PES programs, however, conceived as models of market-based management, efficiency criteria have clashed with antipoverty goals and an enduring developmental-state legacy. Like other projects for commodification of nature, Mexico's PES is a hybrid of market-like mechanisms, state regulations, and subsidies. It has been further reshaped by social movements mobilized in opposition to neoliberal restructuring. These activists see ecosystem services as coproduced by nature and campesino communities. Rejecting the position of World Bank economists, they insist that the values of ecosystems derive less from the market prices of their services than from their contributions to peasant livelihoods, biodiversity, and social benefits that cannot be quantified or sold. These divergent conceptualizations reflect contrasting understandings of the roles of agriculture and of the state in sustainable development. The Mexican case exposes contradictions within neoliberal environmental discourse based on binary categories of nature and society. It suggests that conservation policies in the global South, if imposed from the North and framed by neoliberal logic, are likely to clash with state agendas and local development goals.

Mental Health Care Reforms in Latin America: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Mexico

Mental Health Care Reforms in Latin America: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Mexico

Mental Health Care Reforms in Latin America: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Mexico

This column provides an overview of child and adolescent mental health services in Mexico, where prevalence rates of mental disorders among young people are up to twice as high as U.S. and Canadian rates. The mental health care system in Mexico is underdeveloped and underfunded, and for the approximately 40% of the population with no insurance, access to and quality of care are particularly poor. This column offers policy recommendations aimed at better meeting the needs of this vulnerable population.

The evolution of the environmental industry in the post-NAFTA era in Mexico

The market for environmental goods and services in Mexico almost doubled in size between 1995 and 2005, amounting to $4.7 billion in 2005. But just how large a role did the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) play directly in this cycle? According to environmental industry participants in Mexico, while not meaningless, the NAFTA law and its implementation were not a major factor in directly driving environmental market growth. First, the environmental market grew only marginally higher than the gross domestic product (GDP) during 1995–2005. Second, it was largely two factors that paced the environmental market growth: an increase in certain domestic environmental programs that largely separate from NAFTA and an influx of foreign manufacturers into Mexico, some of which brought a higher standard of environmental operations with them. Drivers of environmental markets are both economic and regulatory, and in both instances, they are multifaceted, so that no one policy instrument or economic trend is solely responsible for major trends within the environmental industry. However, it is apparent that NAFTA has had some role in accelerating the evolution of environmental markets in Mexico, but arguably a lesser influence than it could have been. Notably, NAFTA had little impact on stimulating growth on the domestic environmental industry in Mexico as trade deficits increased during 1995–2005. The lesson for policymakers may be that trade agreements need some more active entity in assuring not just some uniformity in environmental standards and in the compliance with same, but also in the environmental industry capacity to meet those compliance objectives.

User intention and consumer needs of packaged mobile data services in Mexico

This investigation contributes to understand direct and indirect variables that influence consumer adoption of various data services from the consumer's perspective: entertainment, information, communications, and commercial transactions. We use structural equations and a Lancasterian demand to determine loads of variables in a technology adoption model with uncertainty and marginal prices that consumers are willing to pay for enhanced services, applied to Mexico. Additional to the structural equations, we find that the consumer is willing to pay up to US$ 50 monthly for premium services. The paper also gives directions for further research in adoption of enhanced technologies in emerging economies.

The Vicissitudes of Public Health Policy in the Americas

The Vicissitudes of Public Health Policy in the Americas Amy Whitfield (bio) and Howard Waitzkin (bio) Marriage of Convenience: Rockefeller International Health and Revolutionary Mexico. By Anne-Emanuelle Birn. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2006. Pp. 434. $95.00 cloth. Cold War, Deadly Fevers: Malaria Eradication in Mexico, 1955–1975. By Marcos Cueto. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. Pp. 264. $45.00 cloth. The Value of Health: History of the Pan American Health Organization. By Marcos Cueto. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2007. Pp. 252. $29.95 cloth. Decentralizing Health Services in Mexico: A Case Study in State Reform. Edited by Núria Homedes and Antonio Ugalde. La Jolla, CA: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 2006. Pp. 332. $24.95 paper, $56.95 cloth. Fit to Be Citizens? Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879–1939. By Natalia Molina. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Pp. 279. $21.95 paper, $55.00 cloth. Historically, public health policies in the Americas have emerged as a result of political and economic forces rather than a narrow concern for the objective improvement of public health and the prevention of illness. Specifically, public health policies have interconnected with the needs of business and foreign policy as formulated during different historical periods. The four books reviewed here show an awareness of the nonautonomous nature of public health policies in the Americas. On the basis of these excellent books, we assess the origins and impacts of public health policies in furthering economic and political goals. Economic Impacts of Public Health Policies Public health policies in the Americas have focused on the economic benefits of preventing and eradicating disease. International health agencies [End Page 216] originated in large part from the need to create a system to stop the spread of disease, which was hindering trade. Marcos Cueto's The Value of Health provides a detailed history of the creation and continuation of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and its role in the use of health policies to advance trade and economic benefits. Cueto provides a nonjudgmental look at this history that historians, Latin Americanists, and health-policy professionals can enjoy. The book is easy to read and does not require previous knowledge of Latin America or public health. Cueto uses varied resources in compiling a chronicle of the international organization, separating its history into the eras of PAHO's directors. Each director's background, including education, other organizational affiliations, and personal passions, is included as a significant part of the story. This information provides a look not only at policy directives but also at the factors contributing to the organization's choices in health-policy decisions. Cueto provides details concerning the forces that initiated the organization, specifically the system of quarantining ships to block the spread of disease that, as stated previously, limited trade and created a loss of materials. Different countries were blamed for spreading disease because of the deficient cleanliness of their ports. Medical posts, set up at ports, checked ships and immigrants, and single companies established processes to sanction and authorize ships entering these ports so as to minimize trade difficulties. Walter Wyman, the first Director of PAHO, known then as the Pan American Sanitary Board, focused on the creation of public health policies that would exert minimal adverse impacts on commerce. The policies eventually moved away from concentrating only on port activities as diseases such as bubonic plague, hookworm, and yellow fever spread throughout nations, but they still focused on the economic benefits of preventing and curing diseases. The prioritization of diseases that had to be controlled resulted from considerations of commerce. Cueto's clarification of PAHO's creation based on trade provides some background for looking at the economically motivated health policies portrayed in Natalia Molina's Fit to Be Citizens? Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879–1939. Public health professionals will benefit from Molina's historical look at the treatment of Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles under evolving public health policies. The book provides an outstanding historical account, which historians, particularly those focused on medical or public health history, will enjoy. Much like Cueto...

Mental health services in Mexico

Mexico is a culturally, socially and economically heterogeneous country, with a population of over 100 million. Although it is regarded as a country with a medium- high income according to World Bank criteria, inequality continues to be one of its main problems. In addition to this, the country is going through a difficult period. Large parts of the population face economic insecurity, as a result of which feelings of despair, fear and impotence are common. It is hardly surprising, then, that mental disorders should constitute a major public health problem: depression is the main cause of loss of healthy years of life (6.4% of the population suffer from it), while alcohol misuse is the 9th (2.5%) and schizophrenia the 10th (2.1%) most common health problem (González-Pier et al, 2006).

Cross-border utilization of health care services by United States residents living near the Mexican border

To determine what proportion of El Paso (Texas, United States of America) residents access health care services in Mexico, which services they use, and why they cross for care. A cross-sectional, telephone survey of El Paso County residents was conducted from October-November 2007 to determine use of health care services in Mexico. At total of 2 560 telephone interviews were completed. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square analysis were used to determine the proportion crossing the US-Mexico border for care and identify correlates of crossing. The proportion of El Paso residents that had crossed into Mexico for some type of health care service during the two years prior to the survey interview was 32.5%. Of border crossers, 27.1% used health services; 63.2%, dental services; 82.0%, pharmacy; and 9.8%, traditional healers. Reasons given were cost, lack of health insurance, language barriers, and convenience. Hispanic ethnicity, having lived in Ciudad Juárez, being uninsured, and younger age were associated with crossing. The majority were satisfied with the health services received. Crossing the border to access health care services in Mexico is not uncommon for US residents living in El Paso County, Texas. Given the high rate of uninsured in the United States and the increasingly stringent security requirements, health policies may be needed that allow for cross-border care, making use of this alternative health care system easier and safer.

Heading South

To Identify factors that explain why some Mexican immigrants in California use health services in Mexico. California Health Interview Survey 2001 data were analyzed for medical care, dental care, and/or prescription drug purchases in Mexico in the previous year. Logistic regressions estimated the effect on use of need, availability, accessibility, and acceptability among immigrants from Mexico. An estimated 952,000 California adults used medical, dental, or prescription services in Mexico during the past year, of whom 488,000 were Mexican immigrants. Long-stay Mexican immigrants had the highest rate (15%), followed by short-stay Mexican immigrants (11.5%), US-born Mexican Americans (5.4%), and US-born nonLatino whites (2.1%). Predictors of use by immigrants included need, no insurance, delay seeking care, more recent immigration, limited English, and nonphysician provider use. Living closer to the border increased use, although half of immigrants seeking services lived more than 120 miles from the border. Mexican immigrants with long stays in the US have a somewhat different pattern of predictors from those with short stays. Mexican immigrants are the most likely to seek medical, dental, and prescription services in Mexico. A large number, but small percentages, of US-born nonLatino whites purchase prescription drugs there. Although proximity facilitates use, access and acceptability barriers in the US medical care system encourage immigrants to seek care in Mexico who would be helped by expanded binational health insurance.

Seguro Popular: improved access to DM services in Mexico

Seguro Popular: improved access to DM services in Mexico

Economic Costs of Water-related Health Problems in Mexico: Deficiencies in Potable Water Services and the Costs of Treatment of Diarrhoeas

The paper provides a quantitative estimate of the economic costs of the health problems, especially diarrhoea, attributable to deficiencies in potable water services in Mexico. It is argued that more financial resources should be allocated to improving and extending potable water and sanitation, lack of which are the principal causes of diarrhoeas.

Institutions and the Provision of Local Services in Mexico

The growing relevance of local governments in the provision of public services and the implementation of development policies increasingly require an attentive analysis of the determinants of governments' performance at this scale. Among these determinants I analyze the impact of institutional factors in the provision of public goods at the municipal level in Mexico, and more specifically: the institutional capacity (a skilled bureaucracy and local budgets), institutional thickness (civic engagement, corruption), and region size (surface area and population) in the provision of education (literacy), health (child mortality), and housing (electricity, water, and sewerage supply). The results highlight the importance of institutional capacity at the local level, as well as the size of subnational units in the provision of public goods, but there are mixed findings regarding the level of institutional thickness.

Dostępność do usług kulturalnych w Meksyku

The paper describes the availability of cultural services in Mexico. According to the research, the states featuring the most extensive array of cultural services are located in the Yucatan Peninsula and in selected parts of central Mexico. The places where cultural services are taken advantage of most extensively are the capital city (the state of Distrito Federal) as well as the previously mentioned states located in the Yucatan and in central Mexico. In some of the states, cultural services are available but not taken advantage of as much, while in other states, there are fewer cultural services, but they are extensively taken advantage of. In order to analyze this particular problem, values of cultural service use indicators were correlated with values of selected social indicators such as urbanization level, percentage of people with higher education, percentage of people employed in agriculture, forestry, and fishing, as well as percentage of large households.

A predictive model for the utilization of curative ambulatory health services in Mexico

To estimate the degree to which individual and household variables jointly predict utilization of curative ambulatory services in Mexico for four types of health providers. Patient choice of provider (self-care, Ministry of Health, social security, or private provider) when they become ill is modeled using a nested multinomial logit model that uses household and individual variables as predictors. The data are from the Mexican National Health Survey conducted in 2000. Being a social security beneficiary is one of the most important predictors of utilization. A strong positive relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and demand for services was also found, with the strongest relationship being for private providers, followed by social security. Utilization of Ministry of Health (MoH) services was negatively associated with household SES. Expansion of health insurance coverage should significantly reduce health inequalities due to reduced care-seeking by non-beneficiaries.

Heterogeneous impact of the “Seguro Popular” program on the utilization of obstetrical services in Mexico, 2001–2006: A multinomial probit model with a discrete endogenous variable

Objective We evaluated the impact of Seguro Popular (SP), a program introduced in 2001 in Mexico primarily to finance health care for the poor. We focused on the effect of household enrollment in SP on pregnant women’s access to obstetrical services, an important outcome measure of both maternal and infant health. Data We relied upon data from the cross-sectional 2006 National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT) in Mexico. We analyzed the responses of 3890 women who delivered babies during 2001–2006 and whose households lacked employer-based health care coverage. Methods We formulated a multinomial probit model that distinguished between three mutually exclusive sites for delivering a baby: a health unit specifically accredited by SP; a non-SP-accredited clinic run by the Department of Health (Secretaría de Salud, or SSA); and private obstetrical care. Our model accounted for the endogeneity of the household’s binary decision to enroll in the SP program. Results Women in households that participated in the SP program had a much stronger preference for having a baby in a SP-sponsored unit rather than paying out of pocket for a private delivery. At the same time, participation in SP was associated with a stronger preference for delivering in the private sector rather than at a state-run SSA clinic. On balance, the Seguro Popular program reduced pregnant women’s attendance at an SSA clinic much more than it reduced the probability of delivering a baby in the private sector. The quantitative impact of the SP program varied with the woman’s education and health, as well as the assets and location (rural vs. urban) of the household. Conclusions The SP program had a robust, significantly positive impact on access to obstetrical services. Our finding that women enrolled in SP switched from non-SP state-run facilities, rather than from out-of-pocket private services, is important for public policy and requires further exploration.