Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T17:21:51.744Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Networks among Indigenous Peoples in Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Emmanuel Skoufias ,
Trine Lunde  and
Harry Anthony Patrinos
Emmanuel Skoufias
Affiliation:
World Bank
Trine Lunde
Affiliation:
World Bank
Harry Anthony Patrinos
Affiliation:
World Bank
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We examine the extent to which social networks among indigenous peoples in Mexico have a significant effect on a variety of human capital investment and economic activities, such as school attendance and work among teenage boys and girls, and migration, welfare participation, employment status, occupation, and sector of employment among adult males and females. Using data from the 10 percent population sample of the 2000 Population and Housing Census of Mexico and the empirical strategy that Bertrand, Luttmer, and Mullainathan (2000) propose, which allows us to take into account the role of municipality and language group fixed effects, we confirm empirically that social network effects play an important role in the economic decisions of indigenous people, especially in rural areas. Our analysis also provides evidence that better access to basic services such as water and electricity increases the size and strength of network effects in rural areas.

Resumo

Resumo

Investigamos hasta qué punto las redes sociales entre pueblos indígenas tienen un efecto significativo para una variedad de inversiones de capital humano y de actividades económicas, tal como la asistencia escolar y el trabajo entre niños y niñas adolescentes, y la migración, la participación a prestaciones sociales, la situación laboral, la profesión y el sector laboral entre adultos de sexo masculino y femenino. Utilizando datos de la muestra del 10 por ciento del Censo de Población y Vivienda 2000 de México y la estrategia empírica propuesta por Bertrand y otros (2000) que nos permite tener en cuenta el papel de efectos fijos de municipio y grupo de lenguaje, confirmamos empíricamente que los efectos de redes sociales juegan un papel importante en las decisiones económicas de personas indígenas, especialmente en zonas rurales. Nuestro análisis también proporciona pruebas de que un mejor acceso a los servicios básicos como el agua y la electricidad aumentan el tamaño y la fuerza de los efectos de redes en zonas rurales.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , 2010 , pp. 49 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Latin American Studies Association

Footnotes

This article is extracted from a World Bank Regional Study financed by the Regional Studies Program of the Office of the Chief Economist of the Latin America and Caribbean Region. The team is grateful to Christian Borja-Vega for data support and analysis. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this article are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the World Bank, its board of directors, or the countries it represents.

References

Araujo, C., Janvry, A. de, and Sadoulet, E. 2004 “Peer Effect in Employment: Results from Mexico's Poor Rural Communities.” Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Policy Working Paper No. 991, University of California at Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bebbington, A. 1996 “Organization and Intensifications: Campesino Federations, Rural Livelihoods and Agricultural Technology in the Andes and Amazonia.” World Development 24 (7): 1161–1177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bebbington, A. 1999 “Capitals and Capabilities: A Framework for Analyzing Peasant Viability, Rural Livelihoods and Poverty.” World Development 27 (12): 2021–2044.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bebbington, A. J., Carrasco, H., Peralbo, L., Ramon, G., Trujillo, J., and Torres, V. 1993 “Fragile Lands, Fragile Organizations: Indian Organizations and the Politics of Sustainability in Ecuador.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 18 (2): 179–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bebbington, A., and Perreault, T. 1999 “Social Capital, Development, and Access to Resources in Highland Ecuador.” Economic Geography 75 (4): 395–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, E. 2000 “Sect, Subsidy, and Sacrifice: An Economist's View of Ultra-Orthodox Jews.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115 (3): 905–953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertrand, M., Luttmer, E. F. P., and Mullainathan, S. 2000 “Network Effects and Welfare Cultures.” Quarterly Journal of Economics (August): 1019–1055.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertrand, M., and Mullainathan, S. 2005 “Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination” American Economic Review 95 (5): 1688–1699.Google Scholar
Cagatay, N., and Ozler, S. 1995 “Feminization of the Labor Force: The Effects of Long-Term Economic Development and Structural Adjustment.” World Development 23:1883–1894.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleaver, F. 2005 “The Inequality of Social Capital and the Reproduction of Chronic Poverty.” World Development 33 (6): 893–896.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, J. L. 1983 “Fertility Determinants in a High Andes Community.” Population and Development Review 9 (1): 61–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curran, S., and Rivero-Fuentes, E. 2003 “Engendering Migrant Networks: The Case of Mexican Migration.” Demography 40 (2): 289–307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, S., and Patrinos, H. A. 1996 “Investing in Latin America's Indigenous Peoples: The Human and Social Capital Dimensions.” Paper presented at Nordic Council of Ministers Seminar on Indigenous Peoples Production and Trade, Copenhagen, January 15–17, 1996.Google Scholar
Flores, Margarita M., and Rello, Fernando F. 2003 “Social Capital and Poverty: Lessons from Case Studies in Mexico and Central America.” Culture and Agriculture 25 (1): 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, J. 1996 “How Does Civil Society Thicken? The Political Construction of Social Capital in Rural Mexico.” World Development 24 (6).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbons, R. 2005 “What Is Economic Sociology and Should Any Economists Care?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 19 (1): 3–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granovetter, M. S. 1973 “The Strength of Weak Ties.” American Journal of Sociology 78 (6): 1360–1380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, G., and Patrinos, H. A. 2006 Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Human Development in Latin America. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, S., and Fischer, E. F. 2003 “Non-Traditional Agricultural Exports in Highland Guatemala: Understandings of Risk and Perceptions of Change.” Latin American Research Review 38 (3): 82–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoff, K., and Sen, A. 2005 “The Kin System as a Poverty Trap?” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3575. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kandell, W., and Massey, D. 2002 “The Culture of Mexican Migration: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis.” Social Forces 80 (3): 981–1004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korovkin, T. 1998 “Commodity Production and Ethnic Culture: Otavalo, Northern Ecuador.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 47 (1): 125–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindbeck A., S. Nymberg, and Weibull, J. 1999 “Social Norms and Economic Incentives in the Welfare State.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 114 (1): 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindbeck, A. 1997 “Incentives and Social Norms in Household Behavior.” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 87 (2): 370–377.Google Scholar
Loury, G. C. 1999 “Social Exclusion and Ethic Groups: The Challenge to Economics.” Paper presented to Annual Bank Conference for Development Economics, Washington, D.C., April 28–30, 1999.Google Scholar
Massey, D., and Espinosa, K. 1997 “What's Driving Mexico-US Migration? A Theoretical, Empirical and Policy Analysis.” American Journal of Sociology 102(4): 939–999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, J. D. 1991 “Social Networks and Labor-Market Outcomes: Toward an Economic Analysis.” American Economic Review 81 (5): 1401–1418.Google Scholar
Munshi, K. 2003 “Networks in the Modern Economy: Mexican Migrants in the U.S. Labor Market.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 18 (2): 549–597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munshi, K., and Rosenzweig, M. 2006 “Traditional Institutions Meet the Modern World: Caste, Gender and Schooling Choice in a Globalization Economy.” American Economic Review 96 (4): 1225–1252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, D. 1990 Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orrenius, P. M. 1999 “The Role of Family Networks, Coyote Prices and the Rural Economy in Migration from Western Mexico: 1965–1994.” Working Paper No 99–10, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.Google Scholar
Perafán, C. 2000 Adecuación de los servicios financieros a las economías tradicionales indígenas. Washington, D.C.: Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar
Psacharopoulos, G., and Patrinos, H. A. 1994 Indigenous People and Poverty in Latin America: An Empirical Analysis. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramirez, A. 2006 “Mexico.” In Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Human Development in Latin America, edited by Hall, G. and Patrinos, H. A., 150–198. London: Palgrave McMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reingold, D. 1999 “Social Networks and the Employment Problem of the Urban Poor.” Urban Studies 36 (11): 1907–1932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Standing, G. 1999 “Global Feminization through Flexible Labour: A Theme Revisited,” World Development 27 (3): 583–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephen, L. 1991 “Culture as a Resource: Four Cases of Self-Managed Indigenous Craft Production in Latin America.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 40 (1): 101–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Villarreal, A., and Yu, W. 2007 “Does Economic Globalization Benefit Women? Export Production, Foreign Investment, and Gender Inequality in Mexico.” American Sociological Review 72 (3): 365–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, A. 1991 “North-South Trade and Female Labor in Manufacturing: An Asymmetry.” Journal of Development Studies 27 (2): 168–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolcock, M. 2001 “The Place of Social Capital in Understanding Social and Economic Outcomes.” Isuma Canadian Journal of Policy Research 2 (1): 11–17.Google Scholar
Woolcock, M., and Narayan, D. 2000 “Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research and Policy.” World Bank Research Observer 15:225–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar