IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/emx/ceedoc/2010-13.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Did population well-being improve during Porfirian Mexico? An approximation using a Quasi-Index of human development

Author

Listed:
  • Raymundo M. Campos-Vázquez

    (El Colegio de México)

  • Roberto Vélez-Grajales

    (Centro de Estudios Espinosa Yglesias)

Abstract

It is argued that economic growth during the Porfiriato did not improve the well-being of Mexican population. One explanation for such result is that economic growth pattern was skewed and benefited more the northern states and less the southern ones. Following the estimation method of the Human Development Index (HDI), we calculate a Human Development Quasi-Index for the Mexican states during the period 1895-1910. Results show that starting the period (1895) the northern states were already the most developed. During the next 15 year this pattern was maintained and the dispersion in human development increased marginally. Finally, it is shown that the true losers of Porfiriato were the states surrounding Mexico City and not the southern ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Raymundo M. Campos-Vázquez & Roberto Vélez-Grajales, 2010. "Did population well-being improve during Porfirian Mexico? An approximation using a Quasi-Index of human development," Serie documentos de trabajo del Centro de Estudios Económicos 2010-13, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos.
    • Handle: RePEc:emx:ceedoc:2010-13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cee.colmex.mx/dts/2010/DT-2010-13.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Coatsworth, John H., 1979. "Indispensable Railroads in a Backward Economy: The Case of Mexico," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(4), pages 939-960, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laura Maravall Buckwalter, 2018. "Build it and they will come? Secondary railways and population density in French Algeria," Working Papers 18008, Economic History Society.
    2. Alfonso Herranz-Loncán & Johan Fourie, 2018. "“For the public benefit”? Railways in the British Cape Colony," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 22(1), pages 73-100.
    3. Pushkar Maitra & William Yu, 2021. "The Long Shadow of Infrastructure Development: Long Run Effects of Railway Construction in Colonial India," Monash Economics Working Papers 2021-01, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    4. Dobado, Rafael & Marrero, Gustavo A., 2005. "Corn Market Integration in Porfirian Mexico," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(1), pages 103-128, March.
    5. Isaías N. Chaves & Stanley L. Engerman & James A. Robinson, 2013. "Reinventing the Wheel: The Economic Benefits of Wheeled Transportation in Early British Colonial West Africa," NBER Working Papers 19673, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Elizalde, Aldo & Hidalgo, Eduardo & Salgado, Nayeli, 2023. "Public good or public bad? Indigenous institutions and the demand for public goods," QUCEH Working Paper Series 23-01, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    7. Carson, Scott Alan, 2005. "The biological standard of living in 19th century Mexico and in the American West," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 405-419, December.
    8. Vincent Bignon & Rui Esteves & Alfonso Herranz-Loncán, 2015. "Big push or big grab? Railways, government activism, and export growth in Latin America, 1865–1913," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(4), pages 1277-1305, November.
    9. Andrés Forero & Francisco A. Gallego & Felipe González & Matías Tapia, 2021. "Railroads, specialization, and population growth: evidence from the first globalization," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 1027-1072, July.
    10. Carson, Scott Alan, 2007. "Mexican body mass index values in the late-19th-century American West," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 37-47, March.
    11. Matthew McCartney, 2018. "The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC): Considering Contemporary Pakistan through Old-Fashioned Economics and Historical Case Studies," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 23(2), pages 19-48, July-Dec.
    12. de Jesús Fonseca, Felipe & Gómez-Zaldívar, Manuel & Ventosa-Santaulària, Daniel, 2020. "Public investment and economic activity in Mexico, 1925-1981," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 14, pages 1-24.
    13. Tim Leunig & Joachim Voth, 2011. "Spinning welfare: The gains from process innovation in cotton and car production," Economics Working Papers 1352, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    14. Lee Alston & Shannan Mattiace & Tomas Nonnenmacher, 2008. "Coercion, Culture and Debt Contracts: The Henequen Industry in Yucatan, Mexico, 1870-1915," NBER Working Papers 13852, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Berger, Thor, 2019. "Railroads and Rural Industrialization: evidence from a Historical Policy Experiment," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    16. Barakatou Atte-Oudeyi & Bruno Kestemont & Jean Luc De Meulemeester, 2016. "Road Transport, Economic Growth and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the BRIICS: Conditions For a Low Carbon Economic Development," Working Papers CEB 16-023, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    17. Andrea Forero & Francisco Gallego & Felipe González & Matías Tapia, 2020. "Railroads, specialization, and population growth in small open economies: Evidence from the First Globalization," Documentos de Trabajo 548, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
    18. Tim Leunig, 2010. "Social Savings," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 775-800, December.
    19. Herranz-Loncan, Alfonso, 2011. "The contribution of railways to economic growth in Latin America before 1914: a growth accounting approach," MPRA Paper 33578, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    human development; well-being; Mexico; Porfiriato;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • N36 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:emx:ceedoc:2010-13. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ximena Varela (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cecolmx.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.