ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the impact of direct environmental regulatory pressure in certain economic spaces, namely the leather and footwear industrial districts in Mexico. Over 60 per cent of the total national leather production and over 40 per cent of the total national footwear production in Mexico is generated in Leon, while in the figures for Guadalajara hover between 30 and 25 per cent. The Second World War solidified the leather and footwear industry's position, because a high percentage of US domestic consumption came from Mexican import. The chapter provides guidance to policymakers by showcasing the relevance of a number of restructuring drivers often neglected in mainstream literature. It utilizes the Drivers-Responses-Trajectories framework to examine the relevance of environmental regulation as a restructuring driver. Resource re-allocation, downsizing, vertical integration and/or dis-integration, changes in labour relations and movements of skilled labour are all elements of a restructuring process.
