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This chapter presents information regarding the significance of the Pacific Alliance in the commercial development in Mexico. Mexico’s integration with the countries of the Pacific Alliance (Peru, Colombia, and Chile) is highlighted through statistical analysis of the composition of Mexico’s exports, the future of the country’s exports, and the balance of trade. Some of these challenges are the growth and diversification of exports, internationalization of small business enterprises, and reduction of the balance of trade deficit with respect to some of its main export products. Results showed that Mexico’s three Latin American commercial partners together represented the third-highest destination for its exports, where Mexico had a favorable balance of trade, which suggests that a further opening of these countries’ economies would bring benefits to Mexican economy.

The decrease of Mexican exports since 2012 to countries such as Chile and Colombia are symptoms that the Pacific Alliance free trade agreement needs more support in order to represent an opportunity to increase export diversification, since most of the Mexico-exported goods go to the United States. This can bring economic and political risks because of the overreliance on one trading partner.

The results also showed that most of Mexico’s exports to the Pacific Alliance country members are hi-tech products. The principal exports in terms of sales come from the telecommunications industry, transportation industry, and the home appliance industry. The rest of the main products exported come from medium- or low-technology industries, with high levels of local added value.

Might the impact of the financial stress on exchange markets be asymmetric and exposed to regime changes? Departing from the existing literature, highlighting that the domestic and foreign financial stress in terms of money market have substantial effects on exchange market, this paper aims to investigate the impacts of the bond yield spreads of three emerging countries (Mexico, Russia, and South Korea) on their exchange market pressure indices using monthly observations for the period 2010:01–2019:12. Additionally, the paper analyses the impact of bond yield spread of the US on the exchange market pressure indices of the three mentioned emerging countries. The authors hypothesized whether the negative and positive changes in the bond yield spreads have varying effects on exchange market pressure indices.

To address the research question, we measure the bond yield spread of the selected countries by using the interest rate spread between 10-year and 3-month treasury bills. At the same time, the exchange market pressure index is proxied by the index introduced by Desai et al. (2017). We base the empirical analysis on nonlinear vector autoregression (VAR) models and an asymmetric quantile-based approach.

The results of the impulse response functions indicate that increases/decreases in the bond yield spreads of Mexico, Russia and South Korea raise/lower their exchange market pressure, and the effects of shocks in the bond yield spreads of the US also lead to depreciation/appreciation pressures in the local currencies of the emerging countries. The quantile connectedness analysis, which allows for the role of regimes, reveals that the weights of the domestic and foreign bond yield spread in explaining variations of exchange market pressure indices are higher when exchange market pressure indices are not in a normal regime, indicating the role of extreme development conditions in the exchange market. The quantile regression model underlines that an increase in the domestic bond yield spread leads to a rise in its exchange market pressure index during all exchange market pressure periods in Mexico, and the relevant effects are valid during periods of high exchange market pressure in Russia. Our results also show that Russia differs from Mexico and South Korea in terms of the factors influencing the demand for domestic currency, and we have demonstrated the role of domestic macroeconomic and financial conditions in surpassing the effects of US financial stress. More specifically, the impacts of the domestic and foreign financial stress vary across regimes and are asymmetric.

This study enriches the literature on factors affecting the exchange market pressure of emerging countries. The results have significant economic implications for policymakers, indicating that the exchange market pressure index may trigger a financial crisis and economic recession.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caught the world by surprise. Suddenly, people, as well as organizations, needed to adapt to a new reality of work from home, work–life balance, e-leadership, extreme hygiene, and social distancing. Companies had to find new ways to operate, and areas such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) had to react to face the stakeholders' needs. In addition, developing countries had been in a fragile position, as this crisis has deteriorated already weak economic, political, and social conditions. In Mexico, CSR has traditionally assisted on urgent matters such as poverty, hunger, education, work, and other issues that have also been considered in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of this chapter is to describe and analyze CSR response to the COVID-19 crisis of large foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) in Mexico, especially in relation to the SDG agenda. First, we provide a general background of the initial condition, that is, Mexico's situation when the pandemic arose, as well as common attributes of prepandemic CSR in Mexico. Then, we examine the government's response to the crisis. Afterward, we observe and analyze large foreign MNCs' CSR disclosed activities to face the emergency. Main findings imply that companies switched their usual CSR attention from socioeconomical, institutional, and sustainability goals to primary needs. Lastly, we make recommendations on the future of CSR and the SDG in the so-called “new normal.”

This paper aims to expose the economic and political relations of power disguised in the concept of financial risk as institutionalized in post-crisis economic policies and practices. We do so by examining, from a historical materialist approach, the actors and social struggles implicated in the aftermath of crisis in Mexico and Turkey. We argue that Mexican and Turkish state authorities have targeted workers so that they may disproportionately bear the costs of financial uncertainty and recurrent crises as workers, taxpayers, and debtors in the aftermath of the 2008–2009 crisis. We emphasize, though, that there are important institutional mediations and case study specificities. Mexico’s reforms that target labor as one of the main bearers of financial risk have been locked into legislation and constitutional changes. Turkey’s policies have been implemented in a more ad-hoc manner. In both cases under contemporary capitalism, we see risk as not confined to national borders but as also flowing through the world market. We further argue that the World Bank Report 2014 Risk and Opportunity: Managing Risk for Development emerges out of and reflects such real world responses to crisis that have been predominantly shaped by advocates of neoliberalism, to the benefit of capital. As an expression internal to global capitalism, the World Bank Report functions to legitimize the exploitative content of contemporary financial risk management policy prescriptions. In response, democratized financial alternatives that privilege the needs of workers and the poor are required.

In this chapter, the authors examine the turnover of employees in Latin America, with a particular focus on Mexico. Employee turnover is important in Latin America and in Mexico, as it is in many other places, because the cost of labor typically accounts for 70% of a firm’s operating cost. When employees leave, it requires that the employer replaces the workers through human resource management processes that include recruiting, selection, orientation, and training. These costs are a significant expense to firms that they could avoid if turnover was lower. The authors identify cultural, economic, legal, and other factors that could influence employee turnover. The authors also summarize many managerial practices that can help employers to effectively manage employee turnover. Finally, the authors provide insights for future research on employee turnover in this important region of the world.

This paper aims at a better understanding of contemporary women’s relationship paths and their reasoning behind them. Qualitative interviews with 48 rural and urban women from Western Mexico were conducted and analyzed using a thematic approach and data discussed from a feminist, gender approach and late modernity approach. Findings reveal civil and religious marriages were the paths two-third of women followed to start a family and that women living in permanent and alternating cohabitation did not seek to marry. Women held ambivalent views on marital life and poorer and less-educated women, particularly urban participants, had no choice but to marry. Findings on reasoning reveal a more complex and diverse reality than previous sociodemographic studies have portrayed, where pragmatism and social order were the main causes for marrying and cohabitation. Narratives show premarital sex and the symbolism of marriage and family are changing. A comparative approach between contexts of study, age groups, civil status, and social strata enriched and strengthened the discussion of the findings. The results were contrasted with existing Mexican literature from different fields. A larger qualitative study is needed to broaden the scope of the findings made by this study, whilst large-scale studies should consider either the use of mixed approaches or the inclusion of items that allow them to identify the elements of social and cultural change. The study could help to demystify women’s attitudes toward marriage, sex, and love; a field currently sprinkled with western romantic love values and gender-driven idealizations. This paper might be of interest for social demographers, anthropologists, sociologists, and historians conducting research on these themes from feminist and gender perspectives.

Indigenous education in New Mexico has a long and disappointing history, but with current movements in the reformation of a more equitable system, there is hope for a constitutionally sound and appropriate education for New Mexico's students. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a historical overview of the New Mexico Indian Education Act of 2003 and examine the scope of this state legislation in the 2018 court decision in Yazzie/Martinez vs. the State of New Mexico. This court ruling has directly affected schools and students in New Mexico. Specifically, there are legal and operational ramifications to school districts and implications for curricular and classroom decisions that address inequities in public education for vulnerable student populations. To provide context, I share my testimony as a witness in the legal proceedings. I also argue that curricular development opportunities in critical literacy and critical awareness for education practitioners will prove to be important responses to the findings of the lawsuit. I share findings from qualitative research on the implementation of the New Mexico Indian Education Act prior to the Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit and the resulting changes to the legislation resulting from the court findings.