A Stochastic Walk Down Mexico’s Mesoamerican Frontier, 1990-2011

Local economic growth 1990-2011 along Mexico’s southern border is analyzed using a stochastic production function with subject-specific fixed effects and the convergence literature. An underlying Translog technology fits the data well with excess physical capital and labor evident. Local border economies converged following a neoclassical growth paradigm though growth in total factor productivity was negative due to diseconomies of scale. Mean technical efficiency is quite low (31%) with relatively lower efficiency on the Mexican side of the frontier. A greater focus on the economic development of municipios located directly on either side of the border is suggested along with investments designed to improve technical change.