This research explores the role of growth factors related to endogenous growth models in explaining the determinants of productivity growth across urban manufacturing in Mexico. I particularly evaluate the significance of education, learning-by-doing, infrastructure, and knowledge spillover due to specialization as relevant growth factors.;I took as observation units for this study the manufacture in cities with population greater than 100,000 in 1990. The analysis used census data from 1975 to 1993.;In this research, in keeping with the most recent methodology for explaining economic growth differences based on factors related to endogenous (new) growth theories, (see Barro (1997)) and Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995)), I find that growth factors such as education, learning-by-doing, and knowledge spillovers due to specialization are relevant in under trade liberalization. In particular, I test the Livas and Krugman's (1992) hypothesis that suggest that trade liberalization would promote productivity growth in the northern cities as a result of the dynamic effect of trade given that these cities are closer to the new central market for Mexican manufacturing, and the loss of relevance of previously accumulated growth factors. In contrast to this hypothesis, I observed that urban manufacturing close to the U.S.A. did not show better performance than the rest of the cities as expected, and that accumulated growth factors, such as education, learning-by-doing, and knowledge spillover were still relevant in explaining productivity growth across urban manufacturing in Mexico.
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