Economist’s new book examines Mexican development from historical perspective

Author: Elizabeth Rankin

Jaime Ros book cover

Jaime Ros, professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame, is the co-author of “Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective,” recently published by Oxford University Press. The book is the first comprehensive examination of Mexico’s economic history in English in nearly 40 years.

Ros and his co-author analyze the successive periods of stagnation and growth that characterize Mexico’s economic history, with particular attention to state-led industrialization, recent market reforms, and the persistence of poverty and inequality.

“The Mexican and U.S. economies today are inextricably intertwined,” Ros said. “Students of Latin America and policymakers alike need to better understand the problems suffered by the Mexican economy—and the possible solutions we explore in our book.”

Critical of the dominant trend in economic literature, the authors argue that the market reforms undertaken by Mexican governments since the mid-1980s have not addressed the fundamental obstacles to economic growth.

A faculty fellow of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Ros has written extensively on development economics and economic growth in Mexico. A Notre Dame faculty member since 1990, he studied economics at the University of Cambridge. Ros currently is the director of the institute’s Latin American Studies Program.

The book’s coauthor is another expert on the Mexican economy: Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid of the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Contact: Jaime Ros, 574-631-7009, ros@nd.edu