Structural reforms and price liberalization in Mexican agriculture

✍ Scribed by John Baffes

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 179 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0954-1748
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1328(199807/08)10:5<575::aid-jid430>3.0.co;2-l

✦ Synopsis

This paper shows that the policy changes introduced by the Mexican Government in the mid-1980s induced a reduction in the pro®ts of the crop subsector. A simple simulation exercise revealed that, under price liberalization of the four crops studied, the demand for agricultural labour will decline by 6 per cent (equivalent to about 360,000 agricultural workers); the supply of maize is expected to decline by about 11 per cent while the corresponding declines of wheat, sorghum, and beans will be 22, 13, and 5 percent, respectively. The use of fertilizer is also expected to decline to two thirds of its current use.