Part of the problem is caused by Mexico's confused land laws, which date from the revolution of 1910-17.

ECONOMIST: Planning in Mexico: Grounded | The

In college I wrote a paper on land reform in Mexico as the result of the 1917 revolution.

FORBES: Readers Say

They invested in land and grand houses, some Britons in the industrial revolution.

ECONOMIST: Millennium issue: Slavery

When the Mexican revolution began in 1910, some 2, 000 families owned 87% of the rural land.

ECONOMIST: The problems of plugging a square economy into a round world