Searching for Growth and Development in Authoritarian Mexico : A Brief Tale of the NAFTA Commitment Device

Mexico’s pursue and implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a pro-growth policy strategy that deepened Mexico’s economic liberalization process at a time of crisis and macroeconomic stabilization. In that context, NAFT...

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Main Author:	Gonzalez Reyes, Alfredo
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:	NAFTA trade agreements politics economic liberalization trade diversification political elites
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/335681487591534632/World-development-report-2017-searching-for-growth-and-development-in-authoritarian-Mexico-a-brief-tale-of-the-NAFTA-commitment-device http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26211

id	okr-10986-26211
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-262112021-05-25T08:57:54Z Searching for Growth and Development in Authoritarian Mexico : A Brief Tale of the NAFTA Commitment Device Gonzalez Reyes, Alfredo NAFTA trade agreements politics economic liberalization trade diversification political elites Mexico’s pursue and implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a pro-growth policy strategy that deepened Mexico’s economic liberalization process at a time of crisis and macroeconomic stabilization. In that context, NAFTA constituted a commitment device to investment that ensured continuity to both the stabilization and the liberalization processes. NAFTA was possible for Mexico thanks to a new coalition between public and private elites that had recently gone through a deep transformation process themselves. After more than twenty years, NAFTA has significant results in terms of investment and levels and diversification of trade; however, the evidence on its impact in growth and development is mixed. The asymmetry of negotiation power between the United States and Mexico affected the agreement, but its final shape and implementation were impacted in important ways by Mexico’s political realities. Two examples of this: The highly hierarchical, camarilla-style line of command of the Mexican team derived in in controversial concessions and strategic mistakes in the areas of agriculture and financial services. Later, a corporatist, authoritarian regime induced a weak supplementary labor accord that can have had the potential of effectively promoting higher equity through strengthened workers’ rights and more democratic industrial relations. 2017-03-06T23:16:37Z 2017-03-06T23:16:37Z 2016-03 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/335681487591534632/World-development-report-2017-searching-for-growth-and-development-in-authoritarian-Mexico-a-brief-tale-of-the-NAFTA-commitment-device http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26211 English en World Development Report Background Paper; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper Latin America & Caribbean Mexico
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English English
topic	NAFTA trade agreements politics economic liberalization trade diversification political elites
spellingShingle	NAFTA trade agreements politics economic liberalization trade diversification political elites Gonzalez Reyes, Alfredo Searching for Growth and Development in Authoritarian Mexico : A Brief Tale of the NAFTA Commitment Device
geographic_facet	Latin America & Caribbean Mexico
relation	World Development Report Background Paper;
description	Mexico’s pursue and implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a pro-growth policy strategy that deepened Mexico’s economic liberalization process at a time of crisis and macroeconomic stabilization. In that context, NAFTA constituted a commitment device to investment that ensured continuity to both the stabilization and the liberalization processes. NAFTA was possible for Mexico thanks to a new coalition between public and private elites that had recently gone through a deep transformation process themselves. After more than twenty years, NAFTA has significant results in terms of investment and levels and diversification of trade; however, the evidence on its impact in growth and development is mixed. The asymmetry of negotiation power between the United States and Mexico affected the agreement, but its final shape and implementation were impacted in important ways by Mexico’s political realities. Two examples of this: The highly hierarchical, camarilla-style line of command of the Mexican team derived in in controversial concessions and strategic mistakes in the areas of agriculture and financial services. Later, a corporatist, authoritarian regime induced a weak supplementary labor accord that can have had the potential of effectively promoting higher equity through strengthened workers’ rights and more democratic industrial relations.
format	Working Paper
author	Gonzalez Reyes, Alfredo
author_facet	Gonzalez Reyes, Alfredo
author_sort	Gonzalez Reyes, Alfredo
title	Searching for Growth and Development in Authoritarian Mexico : A Brief Tale of the NAFTA Commitment Device
title_short	Searching for Growth and Development in Authoritarian Mexico : A Brief Tale of the NAFTA Commitment Device
title_full	Searching for Growth and Development in Authoritarian Mexico : A Brief Tale of the NAFTA Commitment Device
title_fullStr	Searching for Growth and Development in Authoritarian Mexico : A Brief Tale of the NAFTA Commitment Device
title_full_unstemmed	Searching for Growth and Development in Authoritarian Mexico : A Brief Tale of the NAFTA Commitment Device
title_sort	searching for growth and development in authoritarian mexico : a brief tale of the nafta commitment device
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2017
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/335681487591534632/World-development-report-2017-searching-for-growth-and-development-in-authoritarian-Mexico-a-brief-tale-of-the-NAFTA-commitment-device http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26211
_version_	1764461154138062848

Searching for Growth and Development in Authoritarian Mexico : A Brief Tale of the NAFTA Commitment Device

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