ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a disarmingly symmetrical treatment of the world economy in all its component parts. Angus Maddison asserts that Mexico differs from the East Asian countries by continuing to give top priority to economic growth over microeconomic efficiency. Following a period of “natural” import substitution during the Great Depression and World War II, Mexico adopted an ever more severe version of the typical official import-substitution syndrome in the 1950s and 1960s. Mexico has in place a virtual freeze in the exchange rate, wages and prices, but unlike Argentina and Brazil, and more like Israel, it complements this strategy by tight monetary and fiscal policies.
