Metropolitan convergence clubs in Mexico: an analysis through the satellite nightlight indexnightlight index

Abstract

The objective of this article is to identify the metropolitan areas that economically converge and
diverge in Mexico. The luminic index and the methodology proposed by Phillips and Sul (2007) are
used to estimate the convergence between the metropolitan areas of Mexico. This methodology
allows the formation of subgroups of areas in which there may be convergence or divergence
between the elements of the generated subgroups. There are five convergence clubs among the
various metropolitan areas of Mexico, which shows that the dynamics of economic convergence
are heterogeneous, and it is relevant to study them at the metropolitan area level. Although there
is a division between a convergence club with metropolitan areas predominantly in the north of
the country, we found that this division is far more complex than a simple North-South one.
The article only focuses on metropolitan areas, so not all municipalities in Mexico are included.
Even though the Phillips and Sul (2007) methodology allows us to generate convergence clubs
without the need to make assumptions related to the stationarity properties of variables, this
methodology does not allow us to identify the specific factors that cause these groups to form.
This is the first paper that analyzes economic convergence between metropolitan areas in Mexico.