| Abstract: |
This document presents an alternative to measure informal economic activity at
the municipal level for the 2013-2020 period in Mexico. Using satellite images
of nightlight and microdata from the 2019 Economic Census, the formal and
informal Value Added at the municipal level is estimated using a modified
version of the model proposed by Tanaka and Keola (2017). Although there are
some measurements in Mexico of informal economic activity, these are not
available at the municipal level or on an annual basis. The results indicate
that at the national level, most of the municipalities show decreases in their
levels of informal activity during the 2013-2019 period, with the North and
North central regions concentrating a higher proportion of these, while in the
Center the majority of the municipalities remained unchanged in the percentage
of informal Value Added. In contrast, an important part of the Southern
municipalities registered increases in the percentage of their informal
activity during the same period. |