Historia Económica de México

About the course

This course examines Mexico's economic history from the late eighteenth century to the present, with particular attention to the major transformations of the twentieth century. The goal is for each student to develop their own view of Mexico's economic history: how its institutions emerged and evolved, how its patterns of growth changed, the crises it went through, and how the country has produced, financed, and organized its economic activity, with an eye to the economic dilemmas Mexico faces today.

The course combines a chronological sequence with thematic discussions, from the economy of New Spain and Independence, through the Porfiriato, the Revolution, and the developmental state, to the 1982 and 1994 crises, structural reform, and Mexico's place in the global economy.

How the course works

Each session pairs a short lecture with a group discussion of the assigned readings, so participation is the core of the grade (40%), including a brief “Graph of the Day” presentation. Students also write two short essays (15% each) that pair a historical reconstruction with a public-policy argument, and take a final exam (30%) that rewards arguments built on historical and economic evidence over memorization.

Course documents

Schedule

Taught in person, four sessions a week over six weeks. The syllabus lists the priority (P) and supplementary (C) readings for every session.

Week 1The Mexican economy before the Porfiriato

1. 1.1The economy of New Spain in the late eighteenth century
2. 1.2Crisis of the colonial order and Independence (1808–1821)
3. 1.3Post-independence depression and the fragility of the national state (1821–1850)
4. 1.4La Reforma, slow recovery, and the prelude to the Porfiriato (1850–1876)

Week 2From the Porfiriato to postrevolutionary reconstruction

1. 2.1Growth during the Porfiriato, foreign investment, and the domestic market
2. 2.2Public finance, banking, and currency before the Revolution
3. 2.3Revolution, economic destruction, and political realignment
4. 2.4Postrevolutionary reconstruction and the founding of Banco de México

Week 3From the 1920s to the developmental state and accelerated industrialization

1. 3.1The late 1920s and the Great Depression
2. 3.2Cardenismo, the oil expropriation, and the emergence of the developmental state
3. 3.3World War II and import substitution
4. 3.4Accelerated industrialization in the 1940s and 1950s

Week 4Structural weakness, stabilizing development, and unsustainable growth

1. 4.1Origins and conception of stabilizing development
2. 4.2The economic policy of stabilizing development
3. 4.3A new model and unsustainable growth
4. 4.4The 1982 crisis and its economic consequences

Week 5Debt crisis, stabilization, and structural change, 1982–2000

1. 5.1The lost decade: debt crisis, stagnation, and inflation
2. 5.2Structural reform and entry into globalization: Mexican neoliberalism
3. 5.3The 1994 crisis and its consequences
4. 5.4Institutional and democratic change at the end of the twentieth century

Week 6Mexico in the twenty-first century

1. 6.1The democratic transition and the Mexican economy after 2000
2. 6.2Globalization, trade integration, and development
3. 6.3Inequality, informality, poverty, and social policy in Mexico today
4. 6.4Mexico today and in the future: concluding reflections