"Seeks to describe and interpret Mexico's economic experience during the 1980s. Emphasizes the shift in development strategy from import substitution, State-controlled economy to an open economy in which the State's intervention is limited by a new legal and institutional framework. Also of interest is an examination of the social costs of the economic crisis and adjustment during the 1980s. Speculates about why adjustment and reform in the 1980s may have been easier for Mexico than for other debt-ridden countries"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.