David J. Molina

An Evaluation of the Relationship Between Hispanics and Major League Soccer

This article examines the determinants of attendance in U.S. professional soccer. We concentrate on the relationship between the potential Hispanic fan base and yearly attendance in Major League Soccer. U.S. Hispanics have a long history of supporting professional soccer leagues in their home countries. In addition, the U.S. Hispanic community is the fastest-growing segment of the population. Although Major League Soccer has targeted the emerging U.S. Hispanic market, our results indicate that teams located in areas with relatively more Hispanics have lower attendance. This brings into question the efficacy as well as the direction of league marketing. Not surprisingly, we find that teams with better players and teams located in more populated regions have higher attendance. We also find, however, that local sports competition has a significant impact on attendance. These findings are important for the future viability of Major League Soccer.

Income Distribution in Mexico’s Northern Border States

Abstract A high degree of income inequality has been a persistent and troubling feature of the Mexican economy, but the degree of inequality is far from uniform in different regions of Mexico. Given the growth of the maquiladora industry and proximity to the United States, it is reasonable to anticipate that Mexicos northern border states exhibit a different pattern of inequality than other regions in Mexico. Using data from the 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2000 surveys of income and expenditures (Encuesta Nacional de Ingresos y Gastos de los Hogares) conducted by INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática), this paper addresses two fundamental questions. First, is the pattern of income distribution in Mexicos northern border states different from that found in other regions of Mexico? Second, has the pattern of income distribution in the border states been changing or has it been relatively stable during the 1992-2000 time period?

Mexico's Changing Distribution of Income?

The Mexican economy experienced three major economic events during the last decade. First, the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) starting on January 1, 1994, was a major milestone in the opening of the Mexican economy. Second, Mexico suffered its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression in late 1994 and throughout 1995. Third, the U.S. recession beginning in late 2000 resulted in a major decline in Mexican manufacturing employment, particularly in the maquiladora industry, where more than 200,000 jobs were lost between 2000 and 2002 (INEGI 2004). In addition, several major political events occurred during the last decade. On the same day NAFTA came into effect, there was open rebellion in the state of Chiapas. Also in 1994, Mexicos presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was assassinated in Tijuana in March. Later that year, in September, Mexicos attorney general was assassinated. Mexico selected Vicente Fox as its president in 2000. Fox was the first Mexican president since 1928 who did not belong to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). Fox promised substantial economic and political reforms. In brief, Mexico experienced considerable economic and political instability during the last decade. Changes in income distribution often occur slowly over long periods of time, but periods of significant instability may result in distributional effects during the short run. Mexicos political and economic instability during the last decade could be expected to affect its distribution of income in some obvious and not so obvious ways. In this paper, we address three specific questions regarding income distribution in Mexico. First, in what ways, if any, did the distribution of total money income in Mexico change during this turbulent decade? Second, did Mexicos income distribution in urban and rural

The Impact of Maquiladora Investment on the Size Distribution of Income Along the U.S.-Mexico Border: The Case of Texas

The last twenty years have seen the growth and development of maquiladora industries in the northern border region of Mexico. The maquiladoras are seen as a means to address the low income and high unemployment of the region (Schwartz 1987). To this point, most studies have concentrated on income and employment in the U.S. border region (Erickson 1970, Smith and Neumann 1977, Davila and Mattila 1985) and a few have examined the overall economic impact maquiladoras have on the region (Seligson and Williams 1981, ITC 1986, Clement and Jenner 1988). The employment and income effects of the maquiladoras on the U.S. side has been studied for the nation as a whole without arriving at a consensus. The effects of the growth of maquiladoras on the size distribution of income has received very little attention, particularly in terms of the counties on the U.S. side of the border. This study examines the effects of external investment (in the form of maquiladoras) on the income distribution of the residents of the border counties in Texas. The analysis will pay special attention to the impact of this investment on the large Hispanic population of this border region. The article proceeds as follows. In section two the background of the border region and of some of the relevant issues are discussed. In section three the model and the data are presented. Section four continues with an interpretation of the results. Finally, section five contains the conclusion.

Mexico's Maquiladora trade and the industrial flight hypothesis

The negotiating and ratification process of the North American Free Trade Agreement has brought new attention to the environmental problems of the U.S.-Mexico border. Particularly, much of the discussion has centered on whether the maquiladoras have had a large impact in creating the environmental problems along the border. The Integrated Environmental Border Plan under the Bush Administration and the parallel negotiations under the Clinton Administration are evidence of the political importance of the border environmental problems. The possible impacts of NAFTA on the border environment is an issue widely discussed among scholars (Gilbreath 1992, Mumme 1993, Trevino and Fernandez 1992). The purpose to the present work is to look back at the precursor of the NAFTA, the maquila industry. We will show that pollution abatement avoidance in the U.S. has contributed to the growth of the maquila industry. Industrial flight to Mexico occurs as pollution abatement costs rise in the U.S. In addition, our results indicate that firms may move to Mexico to increase their capital intensity. This result appears to contradict the conventional wisdom that firms move to Mexico to take advantage of inexpensive labor. The paper proceeds as follows. In the next section, brief reviews of the industrial flight and the pollution haven hypotheses in the maquiladora industry are presented. In Section III we present a model to test the industrial flight hypothesis. Section IV presents a description of the data and test results. The final section contains some conclusions and suggestions for additional research.

Structural characterization of dibenzothiophene 5,5-dioxide by X-ray powder diffraction

Sulfones have been synthesized in our laboratory for identification and modeling of several thiophenic compounds founds in petroleum derivatives. Dibenzothiophene 5,5-dioxide was obtained by the reaction between the dibenzothiophene and hydrogen peroxide according to the methodology described by Drushel and Miller [1]. The product was recrystallized in ethanol and obtained as colorless crystals. The purpose of this work is to report the structure of this compound by X-ray powder diffractometry. The powder diffraction data were collected at 293(1) K on a Rigaku D/MAX diffractometer. From the corrected peak positions, DICVOL91 and TREOR97 suggested a monoclinic unit cell. This result was subsequently least-squares refined using NBSAIDS*83 with FOM ́s M20 = 37.0 and F30 = 36.4. The space group ( C2/c, No.15) was derived from systematic absences and checked with the program Chekcell. The structure was refined with the Rietveld program FULLPROF99. The atomic parameters of dibenzothiophene sulfone known from multiple film Weissenberg photographs were used in the initial model [2]. Final refinement of the data yielded a = 10.106(3), b = 13.815(4), c = 7.129(2) Å and β = 91.639(7)o, RF = 12.62 and RB = 7.17. The molecular structural parameters obtained were correlated with those found by means of ab initio methods applying Functional Density Theory at B3LYP level using basic set 6-31G(d,p). This work was supported by DIF de Ciencias Grant 7157 UIS and Laboratorio de Analítica ECOPETROL-ICP. References [1] H.V.Drushel and J.F.Miller Anal. Chem. 30,7,1271(1958). [2] L.R.Kronfeld and R.L.Sass Acta Cryst. B24,981(1968).