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date: 07 July 2022

Abstract and Keywords

The purpose of this article is to reveal the reasons behind the growth of large Mexican business groups and the changes in their characteristics under the neo-liberal economic reforms and intensified competition that have occurred since the second half of the 1980s. Mexico experienced the emergence and growth of business groups during the process of import substitution industrialization (ISI). They are generally called grupos económicos, or economic groups, and have played important roles as actors of economic development. In the literature on Mexican business groups that focused on their growth in the period of ISI, as in the standard arguments for the emergence of business groups, their emergence was explained as a response by Mexican capitalists to conditions imposed by economic underdevelopment. Business groups also benefited from protection from international competition because of the government policies on trade and foreign direct investment.

Keywords: Mexican business groups, neo-liberal economic reforms, import substitution industrialization, grupos económicos, economic groups

Taeko Hoshino

Taeko Hoshino is Deputy Director‐General of the Area Studies Center, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan. Her research interests include the Mexican economy, Mexican business groups, and the business history of developing countries. She has published in such journals as Developing Economies and Ajia Keizai. She is the author of Industrialization and Private Enterprises in Mexico (Institute of Developing Economies, 2001), and also the editor of La restructuración industrial en México, el caso de la industria de autopartes (El Colegio de México, 1993), and The Transformation of the Business Sector under Economic and Political Reforms: The Case of Mexico (Institute of Developing Economies, 1997).

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