The dual industrial structure hypothesis: The case of the Mexican economy

This dissertation attempts to test empirically the dual industrial structure hypothesis for the case of the Mexican economy. The hypothesis states that in the continuum of industries ranked according to a composite index representing modernity, there is a rupture caused by structural differences which characterize the industrial sector as dual, conforming two sub-universes: the so called modern and traditional industries or, in the language of institutionalist studies, the core and peripheral industries. More specifically, it is expected that such a distribution of industries will be in fact a bimodal distribution. The modes will constitute the centers of two, most probably overlapping, normal distributions.;The results obtained seem to confirm that this ordered distribution of industries is a bimodal distribution, thus lending support to the dual industrial structure hypothesis for the Mexican economy.;The methodology followed in order to apply the empirical test consists of the following steps: (a) Establishment of some theoretical basis, the objective being to provide some interesting suggestions and guide lines; (b) Presentation of the context in which social, political and economic forces may have formed a dual industrial structure in the Mexican economy, the objective being to show that there exists a reasonable probability that such development may have been possible; and (c) The accomplishment of a formal and rigorous empirical test making use of Factor Analysis technique, through which a composite index of modernity is constructed. The Preston test is used to show that the distribution of industries ranked according to the composite index is in fact a bimodal distribution.