This thesis presents an analysis of the electronics in-bond industry in the Mexican Northern Border. It is argued that the location or subcontracting by foreign firms of the assembly phase of electronics production in Mexico constitutes a new pattern of industrial location different from that of the heavy industrial concentrations in the three biggest cities, Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. As this new pattern consolidates and spreads into the interior of the country, the labour processes upgrade, requiring a more skilled labour force with the consequent changes in the structure of the labour force. This process is linked to the general process of internationalisation of capital which has had as a result the integration of more countries into world trade thus changing the structure of world production capacity and the subsequent geographical redistribution of worldwide production. In this way, firms have located production facilities in the Newly Industrialising Countries (NICs) and, nowadays, the New-NICs. However, in opposition to the somewhat one-sided views developed hitherto of the phenomena, the research undertaken on the electronics industry at world level and the empirical data gathered on in-bond electronic firms in the Mexican Northern Border identifies several factors as interacting in the emergence of new patterns of location in countries integrated into international trade: a) the role of technological innovation; b) increasing capital-intensiveness of industry versus labour intensity in certain phases of the production processes; c) intense competition at world scale; d) the characteristics of labour force in the host countries and e) the role of the nation-states - both home and host countries - which through economic and social policies influence the relocation offshore (in the former case) and establish the conditions for the successful performance of the labour processes relocated in the latter.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:645432 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Zeleny, Patricia Erika Aguilar |
| Publisher | London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2443/ |
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