No Growth without Equity?: Inequality, Interests, and Competition in Mexico

Equity and growth are central concerns for development. They are often treated as separate questions, both in economic and social analysis and development policy. This separation is neither good theory nor good practice. This book examines the relationship between equity and growth in Mexico. The central thesis is that Mexico’s poor growth performance of the last twenty five years is intimately linked to inequity. Specific inequalities in power, wealth, and status have created and sustained economic institutions and polices that both tend to perpetuate these inequalities and are sources of inefficiencies and lack of dynamism in the economy. No Growth without Equity? analyzes this thesis at two levels: first, exploring the links between inequality, interests, and economic growth; second, providing specific examples as to how rent-seeking behavior in key sectors of Mexico’s economy produce inefficiencies that are a source of low growth and income concentration. Mexico’s growth problem is unlikely to be solved if these underlying inequalities are not tackled; this has large implications for policy design.