Property rights and the challenge of the technological modernization of the mexican state

This article focuses on the technological challenges arising from two broader challenges of the Mexican state: growth and equity. In order to face the first one, Mexico needs safer and more comprehensive property rights, especially given the changing array of goods characteristic of contemporary economies. Mexico also needs to take into account the new context of a global economy, subject to rapid changes and highly dependent on information flows. Securing property rights and growing within a global economy call for the technological modernization of the Mexican state. The second challenge, equity, also requires of such modernization: nowadays policy-making in areas such as education, health, etc. requires complex analytical capacities and extensive data bases. That is more the case when the Mexican state needs to act through incentives and market signals instead of through the traditional mechanisms of command and control.