Journal of Reviews on Global Economics, 2016, 5, 69-83 69 E-ISSN: 1929-7092/16 © 2016 Lifescience Global Inequality and Spatial Convergence in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area, 1989-2010 Luis Quintana-Romero 1,* , Jaime A. Prudencio-Vázquez 1 and Carlos Salas Páez 2 1 School of Higher Studies Acatlán (FES-Acatlán), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico 2 Centre for Labour Economics and Trade Unionism (Cesit), Economics Institute,University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil Abstract: The analysis of inequality and polarization patterns between by regions of a national economy is central to ascertain their possibilities of future economic development. In this work we study such patterns in municipalities and boroughs of Mexico City Metropolitan Area (Zona Metropolitana de la Ciudad de Mexico, ZMCM). The evolution of inequality and polarization in this important area of Mexico is studied with new proposals of measurement using spatially conditioned indexes and through a dynamic transition analysis. The results confirm that the territorial inequality has grown among the municipalities and boroughs that integrate the ZMCM. Moreover, this phenomenon coincides with an increase of the polarization characterized by the formation of four subgroups or convergence clubs. Keywords: Inequality, polarization, dynamic transition, Mexico City Metropolitan Area (ZMCM). 1. INTRODUCTION The central region of Mexico, and particularly the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (Zona Metropolitana de la Ciudad de México, hereafter ZMCM), was the geographic heart of the Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) process which was adopted in the forties as a model of development, and ended during the early eighties. Such process implied a hyper- concentrated albeit diversified production structure in the ZMCM (Unikel, Ruíz and Garza 1976). During the ISI period, economic growth was closely associated with the domestic market and the dynamics of the national industry. Economic concentration spurred population concentration in the Federal District and the State of Mexico: in 1957, the share of the population in the ZMCM in the central region of the country was 57% (Pérez 2006). Nevertheless, since the seventies this area has undergone a process of hollowing of its economic activity and a slightly diminishing population (Isaac and Quintana 2012), a real turning point in the dynamics of development that reflects major changes in the economic process and structure of this region (Chávez and Guadarrama 2004). Trade opening, which started in the eighties, modified the production structure and its distribution in the territory. Industrial activities of the ZMCM lost *Address correspondence to this author at the School of Higher Studies Acatlán (FES-Acatlán), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Programa de Investigación, Av. Alcanfores y Sn. Juan Totoltepec s/n, col. Sta. Cruz Acatlán, cp.53150, Naucalpan, Edo. de México, México; Tel: +5255 56231525; E-mail: luquinta@apolo.acatlan.unam.mx relevance to regions located in the north of the country, west and Gulf of Mexico (Connolly 1993), and there is a relative de-industrialization along with a loss of competitiveness of the industrial plant, and expressed by the decrease in its contribution to the national GDP and the loss of jobs and job precarization in industry (Pérez 2006). The change in accumulation regime has been characterized as “an export-led, foreign investment based industrialization strategy and greater integration with the economy of the United States” (Valdivia 2008:7). This alteration in the accumulation regime did not result in higher rates of growth or a reduced inequality in the country. In this context, it is vital to know what has been the dynamics of the spatial disparities inside the ZMCM. Few studies on the territorial inequality in the ZMCM attempt to go beyond the usual simple measurements such as the Gini index or some sort of convergence index. Among those few innovative studies we find, Borrayo and Castañeda (2011), who conducted a study of dynamic transition of the income level for Central Mexico region with information at the municipal level, covering the period 1988-2003. In that work the authors note three types of phenomena in the metropolitan area: persistence, mobility, and polarization in income levels. Also, Valdivia (2008) studied the behavior of productivity for the Central Mexico region with disaggregation at the municipal level. Their results show that municipalities and boroughs from the region