Technological Innovation in Mexico and Historical Lags in Growth. A Schumpeterian Vision

Abstract

The Mexican economy has been stagnant for a long time, with low growth levels; the average GDP from 2000 to 2019 was only 2.08%. The Bank of Mexico (Banxico) cut its 2023 growth forecast for the national economy and calculates that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will advance between a range of 0.8 and 2.4 percent, with a central scenario of 1.6 percent, so a significant change is not anticipated in most of the economic indicators that would allow us to foresee an improvement in the evolution of Mexico’s GDP. This can be explained by structural factors in the Mexican economy and economic policies, which have been introducing reforms for almost 40 years since the Miguel De la Madrid government in 1982 and have not been able to resolve satisfactorily the backwardness gap and poverty levels in Mexico. This essay analyzes some factors that try to explain this delay in economic growth, seen from the vision of Schumpeter and his school of thought, among which the following stand out: low levels of investment in Research and Development (R&D), the low educational quality, the weakness of internal markets (goods, services and financial) and the slow technological development, which is not easily integrated into the productive sectors of the economy, to mention those that are considered most relevant from this perspective.