Essays in institutional change, economic reform and regional convergence: Mexico in the new era

The essays address the economic reform program in the Mexican economy with emphasis in the Power, Telecommunications and Education sectors through quantitative economic analysis. Each essay is described separately in the following paragraphs.;The first essay, "Power Sector Deregulation" offers the first economic analysis of the new policy to be enacted in 1999, that deregulates the Mexican power sector. I develop a model to incorporate the discussion of price convergence between regions during deregulation. The second essay examines market power in several regions in the telecommunications sector before and after deregulation. The third essay analyzes regional convergence and growth in Mexico. It offers an empirical analysis of the increasingly important interaction of growth and convergence in all the Mexican states. I extend the literature with empirical analysis beyond the existing empirical analyzes of economic growth.;The research presented in this dissertation grew out of the need to develop a method for condition evaluation of the institutional change and convergence between regions in Mexico. The research consisted of three parts. The first objective was to explain the evolution of the power sector and the response of the 1960 and 1993 reforms in the sector. The results established the basis for studying the impact of the deregulation process on regional power prices in Mexico during the second half of the 1990's. In the second phase of the research, the goal was centered in measuring the market power in the Mexican Telecommunications Sector. In the context of this study, the first empirical estimates were obtained for the period before and after deregulation in the Mexican Cable Sector. Results obtained from empirical regressions are presented, as well as discussion of over the air TV and satellite sectors. The objective of the third phase of this study was to develop a technique for accurately measuring the speed of convergence and growth for Mexican and per capita GDP and human capital. The dissertation, accordingly, examines the economic reform process in Mexico during the 1990's.