Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid is an economist at ECLAC-UN, specializing in development and economic growth of Mexico and Latin America. He has published articles in academic journals such as World Development, Development and Change, CEPAL-Review, Metroeconomica, Investigación Económica, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, International Review of Applied Economics, Harvard Review of Latin America, International Journal of Political Economy, Nueva Sociedad, Revista Mexicana de Sociología, Economía Mexicana. He is a member of the Refereeing Board of El Trimestre Económico and EconomíaUNAM.Jaime Ros is professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame and fellow of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. He specializes in development economics with special reference to Mexico and Latin America. His most recent book is Development Theory and the Economics of Growth. His articles have appeared in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, World Development, Journal of Development Studies, The Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, El Trimestre Economico, Desarrollo Economico and other scholarly journals and edited books.

This book proposes an interpretation of Mexican economic history over the past two centuries based on a simple but strong institutional thesis: growth has been fast when there has been a 'developmental consensus' but has slowed down otherwise. It is a must-read for Mexican and Latin American specialists but particularly for institutional economists. Jose Antonio Ocampo, Professor, Columbia University, and former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

• AIM AND SCOPE OF THE BOOK; OVERVIEW