Half a century of income inequality in Mexico

Abstract

This work shows the evolution of inequality of the distribution of income in Mexico between 1963 and 2010. It identifies 3 stages: The first, which coincides with the abandonment of the stabilizing development model, register a slow but leaning drop of the inequality, finishing with 1984’s evaluation. The second, where inequality rises and stays high, lasts from 1989 to 2000. During this time, a change takes place in the direction of the economic model. The third began in 2002, a year of full economic shrinking. It was characterized by a series of changes in social policy, and shows a decrease in inequality to a lower level in relation to the second stage (% the most important factors to consider are the …% adoption of conditional financial transfer programs, which has caused trade liberalization in the agricultural sector; and public expenditure policy to face up to the crisis that the Mexican government has had in the last years). The author argues that there is not enough empirical information to support that there exist a (linear) tendency towards a reduction in inequality. And, that the income distribution in 2010 is very similar to that of 1984. It took a little over a quarter century for Mexico to achieve a comparable income distribution that it had at the inward-oriented development time