Globalization and Mexican Agricultural Communities

Globalization and Its Impact on Migration in Mexican Agricultural Communities

Jose Martinez
Economist and Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for U.S. – Mexican Studies, UCSD

Wednesday, November 14, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Eleanor Roosevelt College Administration Building
Conference Room 115, First Floor
Reception to follow

In this paper, I examine several market liberalization measures taken in Mexico in the first half of the 90’s and their impact on municipalities’ migration incidence. Specifically, I look at events that affected generally small agricultural producers of basic crops, such as the removal of price supports and input subsidies, changes in laws governing the property rights of communal landowners and the reduction in tariffs on agricultural imports brought about by NAFTA, and their impact on migration to the U.S. I find that reliance on basic crop production is positively and significantly associated with municipality level U.S. migration incidence. I also find small effects of exposure to changes in property rights of communal landowners and negative but insignificant effects of exposure to globalization on migration to the U.S.

Jose Martinez is a recent Ph.D. graduate in Economics from UCSD, and he is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies. Most of his research has focused on the Mexico-U.S. migration phenomenon. His research interests are migration, poverty and inequality. In one of his dissertation chapters, he analyzed the impact of globalization measures taken by the Mexican government and that affected mainly producers of basic crops. He found that, contrary to what the government tried to accomplish, globalization and market liberalization measures in Mexico led to an increase in migration incidence.
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