تصمیم گیری های محلی و توسعه سرمایه انسانی در بخش ماکیلادورا مکزیک

The recent decline in Mexico’s maquiladora sector provides an opportunity to reassess the sustainability of basing national economic competitiveness on low wages.1 Focusing on human capital as an important component of equitable growth, the authors argue that models of its development which consider market factors alone are inadequate. Combining their own case study with a review of other studies over the past 20 years, the authors propose a “management-centered” (as opposed to a “market-centered”) model of human capital development as a basis for discussing the relative merits of in-bond industrial programs and considering measures to improve levels of human capital.

Since its start in 1965, Mexico’s Border Industrialization Program––popularly known as the maquiladora program––has been a both a cause for hope and a magnet for criticism. A source of much needed employment growth and foreign exchange earnings throughout the 1980s and 1990s, this export manufacturing and assembly sector based on an in-bond tariff regime has at the same time often been condemned as dependent on low wages, substandard working conditions, weak or nonexistent unionization, and lax environmental standards. Maquiladoras, in fact, have come to illustrate the larger question of the extent to which development––particularly equitable, sustainable development––is really possible under an export-led growth model. In order to further our understanding of this topic, this paper will refocus the question away from whether the sector as a whole is beneficial or not to Mexico, toward how and under what conditions it can better meet the goals of equitable growth. Rejecting more simplistic, market-driven models of the sector’s development, we will argue the need for a more nuanced one that incorporates the role of decision making by local managers. Based on both field research by the authors and a review of a wide number of existing studies, we suggest that practices by successful maquilas are hardly uniform. Even among those facing similar market conditions, local managers often adopt different production models that have varying consequences for equitable development. In this analysis, attention will be focused upon a single aspect of production we believe to be critical toward ensuring equitable growth: the degree of human capital development within each firm’s workforce. We choose this attribute––as opposed to wages, work conditions, or local linkages––for three primary reasons: 1. Human capital can be a strong contributor to long-term growth insofar as skills attained are lifelong and can have positive effects across generations. 2. It is an endogenous growth factor, providing opportunities for local growth strategies in virtually any geographic setting. 3. Investments in human capital development can be targeted directly to benefit the poor, potentially allowing for more equitable growth.2 Examining variations in human capital building across and within individual product sectors of varying levels of technological sophistication, it will be argued that both supporters and detractors of maquilas are often too narrowly oriented toward the effects of the market itself. An alternative, more comprehensive model needs to incorporate extra-market factors that are important for human capital development. The conclusion of this article will then concentrate on the implications of a management as opposed to market-centered model for Mexico’s future prospects, even in light of a current downturn in the sector.