Has Economic Integration increase or decreased the Homogeneity of Rural and Urban Mexican Consumers

Resumen

Economists, beginning with Pareto (1897), have utilized income distribution as a measurement of welfare. Recently, researchers have turned their attention to the distribution of expenditures. This study adds to this growing literature by providing an a priori selection criterion for consumer expenditure share distributions before computing the Gini coefficient. It uses Mexican household data prior and after the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Peso Crisis of The mid-nineties to show changes in consumer behavior.