The aftermath of openness and integration in the Mexican manufacturing

Mexico is a country whose development process has been traditionally characterised by a substantial unbalanced performance of its regions. Since the early 1980's it carried out an intense liberalisation and export promotion programme representative of a new national development stratagem. This paper looks at the spatial patterns of Mexican manufacturing at the same time as the shifts after the trade liberalisations are particularly weighed up. Data on manufacturing Gross Domestic Product by state is employed for an examination of shares, agglomeration indices and densities. The data reveals a long-run dispersion tendency, the changes however are small. Although the "largest" geographic dispersion happened after the generalised liberalisation programme and after the entry into force of the North America Free Trade Agreement relocation was already in progress in the 1970's. States in the north were the initial beneficiaries of the spatial decentralisation of manufacturing but states in the so called Bajio region have had the major upward changes more recently. There is no evidence of a significant change in a dual regional structure. The argument about cumulative causation and the advantages of initial conditions is pertinent for the case of Mexico City. Moreover a multi-agglomerate pattern within the core is consolidating.