Modeling Production Externalities in the Maquila Industry

With a combined population of 410 million and joint Gross Domestic Product near 11 trillion USD, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) represents the world's largest trading bloc in a global economy of 40.7 trillion USD. Under the current agreement, US Mexico trade has strengthened to the point where Mexico is now the United States' second largest trading partner, with the US remaining as Mexico's largest. The export processing industry, formerly known as the maquila industry, comprises the largest share of this bi-national trade; furthermore, it is the most dynamic component. In the past decade, the industry surpassed both tourism and petroleum products to become the number one source of earned foreign exchange for Mexico. Clearly, the economic impacts of the maquila industry on the Mexican and US-Mexico border economies are critical, as are the impacts of NAFTA on the industry itself, and these issues merit research. Furthermore, given the negative production externalities that characterized the first two phases of the industry, the environmental repercussions of this expanding industry should be studied. Using dynamic modeling as the underlying methodology, this thesis provides a framework for considering the maquila industry from a joint economic and environmental perspective.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Geography

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Zerlentes, Becky

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hewings, Geoffrey J.D.

• Economics, Commerce-Business

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3086225

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/85143