Dinámica geográfica de productividad e innovación en la manufactura mexicana

Industrial agglomeration follows centripetal and centrifugal forces that can be indicated by industrial variety and average number of firms per industrial branch. The economic geography of the correlation of these indicators with productivity, and with competition and congestion, is reviewed. Level and dynamic estimates for a municipal database, for 1993 and 1998, of productivity, physical capital, average wages, production scale, industrial variety and average number of firms, confirm the existence of very significant industrial geographic dynamics in Mexico. Both positive and negative feedbacks exist between centripetal and centrifugal forces, since competition inhibits the formation of new industrial branches. A local subsidy to their introduction would stabilize industrial dynamics and promote both productivity and the rate of innovation. In addition, transport infrastructure investments –and the Mexican democratic transformation– are positive for industrial scale and capital intensity.