Essays on the Historical and Contemporary Development of Mexico

Abstract

This dissertation studies the historical and contemporary development of Mexico from the beginning of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st. In the first chapter, I study the effects of the 1920s rural school expansion on literacy and language in the decades immediately following the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920). Arguing that this policy was part of the government's aim to achieve national coherence and the assimilation of indigenous populations, I exploit variation across space and cohorts to show that rural schools increased literacy and the adoption of Spanish, while also displacing indigenous languages. I additionally consider the relationship between rural schools and land redistribution, a policy central in establishing the legitimacy of the post-Revolutionary government. In the second chapter, I extend this analysis to the long-run by using data from the 1960 and 1970 censuses. I show that in adulthood, those most exposed to rural schools are indeed more likely to be literate and have experienced some primary education, but are less likely to have completed primary school and advanced their education. These findings highlight the potential drawbacks of rapid, low-quality investments in human capital: this program increased literacy, but without additional investments in education, rural populations appear to have been stuck with incomplete primary schooling. In the third chapter, I then turn to economic development in contemporary Mexico. Specifically, I revisit the effect of Chinese exports on the Mexican labor market after 2000. By accounting for the links between different sectors in Mexico, I test whether direct foreign competition may have had spillover effects on related industries. I reaffirm past findings that the direct effect had a negative impact on manufacturing employment, but the evidence on the positive effects of an increased supply of intermediate goods are less precise. Although this dissertation studies specific policies and economic shocks, it offers insights on how, in the span of nearly one lifetime, Mexico saw a dramatic transformation from a disparate, agriculture-based society to one intimately tied to the global economy.