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11. Mexico Peace Index 2018:A comprehensive measure of peacefulness in Mexico

Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)
Abstract:
The 2018 Mexico Peace Index (MPI), produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), provides a comprehensive measure of peacefulness in Mexico. The MPI is based on the work of the Global Peace Index, which is the leading measure of global peacefulness and has been produced by IEP every year since 2007. This is the fifth annual edition of the MPI, setting out the key trends, patterns and drivers of peace in Mexico, while also highlighting the most significant policy opportunities available to governments. The report analyses the dynamics of violence in Mexico and the strengths and weaknesses of the attitudes, institutions and structures, known as Positive Peace, needed to substantially lower the rates of violence. The report also estimates the significant economic impact of violence to the Mexican economy and the need to increase the level of investment in violence containment. Finally, the report provides strong quantitative evidence to aid in the development of policies to create a more peaceful society. The research is of assistance to policymakers, researchers, business leaders and the general public in building peace in Mexico.
Topic:
Economics, Peace Studies, Conflict, Violence, and Peace
Political Geography:
Central America and Mexico

12. Place-specific Determinants of Income Gaps: New Sub-National Evidence from Chiapas, Mexico

Author:
Ricardo Hausmann, Carlo Pietrobelli, and Miguel Angel Santos
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
The literature on income gaps between Chiapas and the rest of Mexico revolves around individual factors, such as education and ethnicity. Yet, twenty years after the Zapatista rebellion, the schooling gap between Chiapas and the other Mexican entities has shrunk while the income gap has widened, and we find no evidence indicating that Chiapas indigenes are worse-off than their likes elsewhere in Mexico. We explore a different hypothesis. Based on census data, we calculate the economic complexity index, a measure of the knowledge agglomeration embedded in the economic activities at a municipal level in Mexico. Economic complexity explains a larger fraction of the income gap than any individual factor. Our results suggest that chiapanecos are not the problem, the problem is Chiapas. These results hold when we extend our analysis to Mexico’s thirty-one federal entities, suggesting that place-specific determinants that have been overlooked in both the literature and policy, have a key role in the determination of income gaps.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Migration, Political Economy, and Economic Inequality
Political Geography:
Central America, Mexico, and Chiapas

13. The ebbing of the Pink Tide or permanent underdevelopment? Dependency theory meets uneven and combined development

Author:
Felipe Antunes de Oliveira
Publication Date:
05-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Global Political Economy, University of Sussex
Abstract:
Latin America is once again passing through a crisis. After initially showing promising results, the neodevelopmentalist strategy adopted in Brazil and Argentina has reached its limits. The attempt at 21st century socialism in Venezuela derailed, tearing the country apart. Finally, the neoliberal path dutifully followed by Mexico, Chile, Colombia and smaller countries perpetuated social inequalities, and is now menaced by President Trump's protectionist turn. The current Latin American crisis goes much beyond the reversion of the so-called "Pink Tide". It affects all ideological colours, raising again an old theoretical-political question that stood in the core of dependency theory: is development even possible in Latin America? The key to answer this question – a concept of development that captures non-converging transformation – was not available to Frank, Marini, Bambirra and Dos Santos, among other dependency theorists. Too easily conflating development with catching-up, they reached a dead end. Indeed, as they could see, Latin America was constantly changing, but not in the expected ways. In this paper, I suggest that the concept of uneven and combined development allows for a renewed engagement with dependency theory's core problem, by representing mixed forms of development as the norm, not the exception.
Topic:
Debt, Development, Economics, International Development, and Economic Growth
Political Geography:
Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Venezuela, Mexico, and Chile

14. Creating the North Atlantic Marketplace for Jobs and Growth: Three Paths, One Detour, A U-Turn, and the Road to Nowhere

Author:
Daniel S. Hamilton
Publication Date:
01-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Transatlantic Relations
Abstract:
For decades the partnership between North America and Europe has been a steady anchor in a world of rapid change. Today, however, the transatlantic partnership itself has become unsettled and uncertain. Nowhere is this clearer than in the economic sphere. Voters across the United States and many parts of Europe have grown skeptical of open markets. Concerns about stagnant wages, widening income inequality, and pockets of stubbornly high unemployment have combined with fears of automation, digitization and immigration to swell economic insecurities on each side of the Atlantic. The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president and the decision by British citizens to leave the European Union have only added to transatlantic uncertainties. This state of division and mutual inwardness threatens the prosperity and ultimately the position of North America and Europe in the global economy and the broader global security system. This study charts possible paths by which Americans and Europeans can navigate this strange new world. It describes how the transatlantic economy is being transformed by domestic political uncertainties, the digital revolution, the changing nature of production, and the diffusion of global power and intensified global competition. It takes account of shifting trade relations among the United States, Canada and Mexico through NAFTA, and what Brexit and the rise of non-EU Europe may mean for the European Union and for transatlantic partnership.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, Partnerships, Brexit, Economic Growth, Trump, and NAFTA
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, North America, Mexico, United States of America, and European Union

15. Amérique latine - L’année politique 2017

Author:
Javier Corrales, Olivier Dabène, Gaspard Estrada, Antoine Faure, Erica Guevara, Marie-Esther Lacuisse, Damien Larrouqué, Nordin Lazreg, Frédéric Louault, Antoine Maillet, Frédéric Massé, and Luis Rivera Vélez
Publication Date:
01-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
Amérique latine - L’Année politique is a publication by CERI-Sciences Po’s Political Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean (OPALC). The study extends the work presented on the Observatory’s website (www.sciencespo.fr/opalc) by offering tools for understanding a continent that is in the grip of deep transformations.
Topic:
Corruption, Crime, Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Sovereignty, Peacekeeping, Protests, Political Science, Regional Integration, Transnational Actors, and Borders
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Latin America, Nicaragua, Caribbean, Haiti, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, and Bolivia

16. How to Cope with Volatile Commodity Export Prices: Four Proposals

Author:
Jeffrey Frankel
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
Countries that specialize in commodities have in recent years been hit by high volatility in world prices for their exports. This paper suggests four ways that commodity-exporters can make themselves less vulnerable. (1) Option contracts can be used to hedge against short-term declines in the commodity price without giving up the upside, as Mexico has shown. (2) Commodity-linked bonds can hedge longer-term risk, and often have a natural ultimate counter-party in multinational corporations that depend on the commodity as an input. (3) The well-documented pro-cyclicality of fiscal policy among commodity exporters can be reduced by insulating official forecasters against an optimism bias, as Chile has shown. (4) Monetary policy can be made automatically more counter-cyclical, judged by the criterion of currency appreciation in reaction to positive terms-of-trade shocks, under either of two regimes: peggers can add the export commodity to a currency basket (CCB, for “Currency-plus-Commodity Basket”) and others can target Nominal Income instead of the CPI.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, Oil, Commodities, Currency Basket, and Indexed Bonds
Political Geography:
South America, Mexico, and Chile

17. Amérique latine - L’année politique 2016

Author:
Maya Collombon, Jacinto Cuvi, Olivier Dabène, Gaspard Estrada, Antoine Faure, Erica Guevara, Damien Larrouqué, Frédéric Louault, Antoine Maillet, Frédéric Massé, Kevin Parthenay, Eduardo Rios, and Darío Rodriguez
Publication Date:
01-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
Amérique latine - L’Année politique is a publication by CERI-Sciences Po’s Political Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean (OPALC). The study extends the work presented on the Observatory’s website (www.sciencespo.fr/opalc) by offering tools for understanding a continent that is in the grip of deep transformations.
Topic:
Economics, History, Sociology, State Violence, and Political Science
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Latin America, Nicaragua, Caribbean, Venezuela, Mexico, Chile, and Ecuador

18. Integrating Violence Prevention and Women’s Economic Empowerment: Lessons from Mexico

Author:
Peace and Security (GIWPS) Georgetown Institute for Women
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS)
Abstract:
In the past two decades, female labor force participation has doubled in Mexico within the context of decreasing rates of violence against women. The World Bank, the World Health Organization, the Inter-American Development Bank, and other international actors have recognized that increasing female economic participation is one of the interventions needed to address violence against women in Latin America. However, there has been limited research conducted on the ways in which non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are already working to integrate violence prevention and economic empowerment, and the challenges they face in their work. The lack of knowledge of best practices and gaps on these issues impedes the government and organizations from replicating and scaling programs that work in tackling violence against women. The need for effective, evidence- based programming is critical, considering that violence against women affects almost half of Mexican women: 46.6% stated in 2011 that they had faced at least one form of violence.1 This gap in knowledge prompted the following research into current programs in Mexico that address women’s economic participation and/or violence against women. Several themes emerged from the semi-structured interviews with 16 key informants from NGOs working on these issues in Mexico. All the leaders recognized the need to integrate women’s economic empowerment and violence prevention. However, many organizations find it difficult to include violence prevention and/or economic empowerment in their programming due to sensitivity around violence against women, lack of resources, capacity, and expertise, and a lack of data that makes it challenging to make the business case for integration. Some organizations do not include violence prevention or economic empowerment in their theories of change, which causes these issues to be neglected even further. Finally, few organizations seem to be working on the issue of economic violence, due to the lack of media and policy attention it generates, and the lack of perceived urgency around the issue as compared to other forms of violence against women, such as trafficking, which receives more funding. Partnerships between violence prevention organizations and economic empowerment organizations are one solution to this issue, but they are rare due to NGOs’ lack of funding in this area and the non-profit world’s limited history with partnerships. Another constraining factor is NGOs’ small peer networks: they lack the network to expand or advocate for their work, especially with corporations. This report provides recommendations for organizations in Mexico working on violence prevention and/or women’s economic empowerment. Funders should direct more resources toward partnership building, capacity building, and data collection and research, and the prevention of economic violence. Organizations should review their theories of change, and see how violence prevention and/or economic empowerment can be incorporated into programs to strengthen effectiveness. They should consider increasing male participation in programming where possible, and take into account the different forms of violence, especially economic violence, when addressing violence in their programs.
Topic:
Economics, Labor Issues, Women, Empowerment, and Violence Prevention
Political Geography:
North America and Mexico

19. Amérique latine - L’année politique 2015

Author:
Maya Collombon, Hélène Combes, Olivier Dabène, Gaspard Estrada, Marie-Laure Geoffray, Ana Carolina González Espinosa, Erica Guevara, Damien Larrouqué, Marilde Loiola de Menezes, Frédéric Louault, Frédéric Massé, Mohcine Mounjid, Eduardo Rios, and Darío Rodriguez
Publication Date:
12-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
Amérique latine - L’Année politique is a publication by CERI-Sciences Po’s Political Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean (OPALC). The study extends the work presented on the Observatory’s website (www.sciencespo.fr/opalc) by offering tools for understanding a continent that is in the grip of deep transformations.
Topic:
Political Violence, Economics, Regional Cooperation, Bilateral Relations, Sociology, and Elections
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Arab Countries, Latin America, Nicaragua, Caribbean, Venezuela, Mexico, and United States of America

20. 2015 Mexico Peace Index

Author:
Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)
Abstract:
The Mexico Peace Index, produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace, provides a comprehensive measure of peacefulness in Mexico from 2003 to 2014. This report aims to deepen the understanding of the trends, patterns and drivers of peace in Mexico while highlighting the important economic benefits that will flow from a more peaceful society. The 2015 MPI presents a somewhat optimistic but cautious picture of the state of peace in the last two years. Mexico’s peace has improved 10.5 percent since 2012, continuing the trend from 2011, however 2014 saw very little improvement, improving only 0.7 percent. It is too early to determine whether this is a new trend. Mexico’s level of peace in 2014 approached 2007 levels, when homicide and violent crime began to increase rapidly.
Topic:
Corruption, Economics, Peace, Justice, and Organized Crime
Political Geography:
North America and Mexico