Industrial Performance in Mexico’s Principal Cities, 1980-2003

Abstract

During the era of globalization, manufacturing production has undergone transformations as regards what is produced (structural change), how this is produced (change in the production process) and whom one produces for (change in the destination of merchandise). These transformations have led to a modification of the patterns and determinants of industrial location (territorial restructuring). This document analyzes the evolution of the economic structure and manufacturing production of Mexico during the period from 1980 to 2003 and the transformations in the pattern of territorial distribution of the country’s main cities. The universe of study comprises 81 cities with a population of 100,000 or more. One of the findings of the study is that Mexico’s economic and industrial restructuring has been characterized more by a quantitative expansion of the economic base and less by a qualitative change, except in the destination of manufacturing production, where a greater emphasis on exports has been observed. Likewise, territorial restructuring has been determined by the new locational pattern of the automobile industry, the reduced spatial distribution of maquiladoras and the deindustrialization observed in certain cities, particularly Mexico City.