Modernization plans for the Mexican customs system: have they really worked? A productivity impact assessment

ABSTRACT

Efficiency measurement of customs offices is a nascent but growing area of research interest. In this study we examined whether the Mexican government’s policies enacted during the 2011–2017 period improved the efficiency of the customs system. Our empirical approach employed a standard metafrontier model to assess the efficiency of all customs offices in Mexico. We examined changes in the best-practice performance, productivity, and technology leadership for three groups of customs offices (border, interior, and maritime) by conducting static and temporal analyses. The static analysis showed that border customs had the most within-group variations. The internal customs group exhibited constant efficiency, whereas the maritime customs group was nearest to the metafrontier. The temporal analysis indicated that border customs offices were the most productive group during the period; however, this group was distant from the metafrontier. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on customs efficiency measurement.

KEYWORDS:

• Efficiency
• Mexico
• customs
• DEA metafrontier
• Malmquist productivity index

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• B16
• D61
• L9

Acknowledgments

Irvin Gilberto Paz Castro would like to thank the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) for its trust and support, which made this study possible. Víctor Giménez would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant number: ECO2017-88241-R).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Tax collection continues to be one of their main directives since the establishment of customs agencies globally.

² We conducted all calculations in R using a code developed by the authors.

³ https://www.milenio.com/negocios/aduanas-convergen-comercio-crimen-organizado-anam..

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología [896356]; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [ECO2017-88241-R].