Institutional Change and Economic Performance:
A New Economic History of Mexico

December 18^th - 19^th, 1998, Stanford University
Conference Room A, Center for Economic Policy Research, Landau Economics Building

Description

SSHI is pleased to present a conference on Institutions and Economic Performance in Mexico. The conference, sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, addresses a fundamental gap in our knowledge about economic development. On the one hand, economists and economic historians agree that institutions have an impact -- and a considerable one at that -- on economic growth. However, as a practical and empirical matter, we do not know which institutions are crucial, and which merely incidental, to economic performance.

This conference employs Mexico's economic history as a laboratory to systematically examine the impact of changes in specific institutions on the performance of specific sectors of the economy. Organizers Stephen Haber (Stanford University), Jeffrey Bortz (Appalachian State University) and Enrique Cárdenas (Universidad de las AméricasPuebla) have brought together a group of historians and economists whose substantive work focuses on Mexico

 

Program

Friday morning:

Panel I: Institutional Change and Productivity Growth

Property Rights, Legal Systems, and Institutional Change:  1870-1911.
Paolo Riguzzi (El Colegio Mexiquense).

The Efficiency Consequences of Institutional Change: Evidence from the Textile Industry.
Stephen Haber (Stanford University).

Friday afternoon:

Panel II: The Regulation of Financial Markets and the Efficiency of Banks

The Construction of Credibility: Financial Market Reform and External Debt, 1880-1910.
Carlos Marichal (El Colegio de México).

The Internal Consequences of External Credibility: Banking Regulation and Banking Performance in Porfirian Mexico.
Noel Maurer (Instituto Technológico Autonomo de México).

Panel III: Commercial Policy and the Direction and Scope of Trade

Commercial Policy in Porfirian Mexico.
Edward Beatty (Duquesne University).

Institutional Change and Foreign Trade, 1870-1930.
Sandra Kuntz Ficker (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana).  4:30-5:30

Discussant:  Carlos Newland (Universidad Torcuato di Tella)

Saturday morning:

Breakfast :  9:30-10:00

Panel IV:  Institutional Change, Labor Relations, and Industrial Wages

The Factory Turned Upside Down:  The Mexican Revolution and Institutional Change in Labor Relations.
Jeffrey Bortz (Appalachian State University).  10:00-11:00

Discussant:  Mary Yeager (UCLA)

Measuring the Impact of the New Labor Relations System, 1900-29.
Aurora Gómez Galvarriato (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas).

Discussant:  Gavin Wright (Stanford)

Lunch: 12:00-1:30

Saturday afternoon:

Panel V: Macro-Institutions and Living Standards

Insitutional Change and Living Standards:  Evidence from Height by Age Data.
Moramay López Alonso (Stanford University and University of California, San Diego).  1:30-2:30

Discussant:  Ken Sokoloff (UCLA)

The Effects of Social Capital and Institutions on Economic Groups, Policy, and Performance, 1930-1990. 
Enrique Cárdenas and Gonzalo Castañeda (Universidad de las Américas-Puebla).