Mexican manufacturing and its integration into global value chains
Juan Carlos Castillo & Adam Szirmai
#2016-001
This paper studies the value added contributions to final manufacturing
output produced in Mexico. It distinguishes between contributions
originating from foreign producers located in different major regions of
the world economy and contributions made by domestic producers. The
analysis is performed for the main two components of Mexican
manufacturing: assembly plants producing for export markets (Maquiladora
industry) and manufacturing firms mainly producing for the domestic
market (Domestic Manufacturing). To this end, Mexico (Maquiladora) and
Mexico (Domestic Manufacturing) are separately included into World
Input-output Tables (WIOT) from 1998 to 2011. The empirical analysis
shows that the structure of value added contributions with regard to the
final output of the Mexican domestic sector has remained unaltered,
while the structure of value added contributions to the final output of
the Maquiladora sector has drastically changed over time.
For its own final output, Mexico (Domestic) has the largest share of
value added contributions with some increase in the value added
contributions of producers in foreign countries (notably, the USA). With
regard to the final output of Mexico (Maquiladora) there was a shift
from a dominance of US value added in all the manufacturing sectors (70%
in 1998) to a much more diversified structure of value added
contributions. By 2011, the East Asian share in value added was the
largest in the Electrical and Optical equipment sector. Mexico (Domestic
Manufacturing) and Mexico (Maquiladora) had the largest value added
contributions in the Transport Equipment sector, while the US continued
to account for the lion's share of value added in the textile industry.
In our view, those changes in the structure of value added contributions
have to do with decisions by US firms to reallocate production to
low-cost countries in Asia. They reflect changing patterns of the
integration of Mexico in global value chains.
JEL Classification: C67, L6, F2
Keywords: Global Value Chains, Export processing, World Input-output Tables, Manufacturing, Mexico
