Editing Economy of Mexico (section)

===Business regulation===

====Corruption====
{{Further|Corruption in Mexico}}
[[File:Betlemitas de la ciudad.jpg|thumb|300px|Facade of the former convent and current [[Interactive Museum of Economics]] on Tacuba Street]]
Petty corruption based on exercise of administrative discretion in matters of zoning and business permits is endemic in Mexico<ref name=TIMEWDE>{{cite news|title=Walmart's Discounted Ethics|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2113176,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426132047/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2113176,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 26, 2012|access-date=April 28, 2012|newspaper=Time|date=May 7, 2012|author=Rana Foroohar}}</ref> adding about 10% to the cost of consumer goods and services.<ref name=eleconomista.com.mx>{{cite news|title=Sector patronal urge a combatir la corrupción|url=http://eleconomista.com.mx/organismos-empresariales/2011/04/04/sector-patronal-urge-combatir-corrupcion|access-date=April 27, 2012|newspaper=El Economista|date=April 4, 2011|author=Lilia González|archive-date=April 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429061338/http://eleconomista.com.mx/organismos-empresariales/2011/04/04/sector-patronal-urge-combatir-corrupcion|url-status=live}}</ref> An April 2012 article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' reporting payment of bribes to officials throughout Mexico in order to obtain construction permits, information, and other favors<ref name = "NYTBribe" >Barstow, David. [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html "Vast Mexican Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart After High-Level Struggle"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201216223922/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html |date=December 16, 2020 }}. ''[[The New York Times]]''. April 21, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2012.</ref> resulted in investigations in both the United States and Mexico.<ref name=FTWMMEX>{{cite news|title=Mexico launches Walmart investigation|url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/4e6ec5ae-8f20-11e1-ab32-00144feab49a.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/4e6ec5ae-8f20-11e1-ab32-00144feab49a.html |archive-date=December 10, 2022 |url-access=subscription|access-date=April 27, 2012|newspaper=Financial Times|date=April 25, 2012|author=Barney Jopson}}</ref><ref name=NYTMFP>{{cite news|title=Attorney General in Mexico Will Investigate Wal-Mart|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/business/global/attorney-general-in-mexico-to-investigate-wal-mart.html|access-date=April 27, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 26, 2012|author=Elisabeth Malkin|archive-date=April 28, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120428052524/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/business/global/attorney-general-in-mexico-to-investigate-wal-mart.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Using relatively recent night light data and electricity consumption in comparison with Gross County Product, the informal sector of the local economy in Veracruz state is shown to have grown during the period of the Fox Administration though the regional government remained PRI. The assumption that the informal economy of Mexico is a constant 30% of total economic activity is not supported at the local level. The small amount of local spatial autocorrelation that was found suggests a few clusters of high and low literacy rates amongst municipios in Veracruz but not enough to warrant including an I-statistic as a regressor. Global spatial autocorrelation is found especially literacy at the macro-regional level which is an area for further research beyond this study.<ref name="Developing Areas 2014, pp. 153-168">{{cite journal |last1=Brock |first1=Gregory |last2=Tian |first2=Jie |last3=Yarbrough |first3=Robert |title=The Informal Economy of Veracruz State During the Fox Administration |journal=The Journal of Developing Areas |date=2014 |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=153–168 |doi=10.1353/jda.2014.0033 |id={{Gale|A416596355}} {{Project MUSE|541499}} {{ProQuest|1511426867}} |jstor=23723970 |s2cid=154520420 }}</ref>

Improved literacy bolsters both the informal and formal economies in Veracruz indicating policies designed to further literacy are vital for growing the regional economy. While indigenous people are relatively poor, little evidence was found that the informal economy is a higher percentage of total economic activity in a municipio with a high share of indigenous people. While the formal economy might have been expanding relative to the informal economy in 2000, by 2006 this process had been reversed with growing informality. While rural municipios have smaller economies, they are not different than urban municipios in the share of the economy that is informal. Programs in the past that might move economic activity from the informal to the formal sector have not succeeded, suggesting public finance issues such as tax evasion will continue to plague the state with low government revenues.<ref name="Developing Areas 2014, pp. 153-168"/>