[The supply of physicians in Mexico: excess and shortage].

The purpose of this paper is to find out whether a decrease in the number of medical undergraduates doing their social service has any influence on the quantity of medical services provided by health care institutions in Mexico. Spearman's Rank Test was used to correlate the number of medical undergraduates and the number of services. Data for analysis were taken from the statistical information bulletins of the Ministry of Health for the decade of the 1980's.

Patterns of medical employment: a survey of imbalances in urban Mexico.

This article quantifies the magnitude and correlates of the major imbalances affecting the employment of physicians in the urban areas of Mexico. Since the early 1970s the country has experienced a rapid increase in the supply of doctors, which its health system was unable to absorb fully. In 1986, we conducted a survey in the 16 most important cities based on a probability sample of households where someone with an MD degree lived.

[Policies for training and employment of physicians in Mexico 1917-1988].

In this article we analyze education and employment policies for medical doctors in Mexico, which have led to a situation characterized by unemployment, under-employment and multiple-employment in urban areas, as well as lack of services in several rural zones. The analysis is divided into four defined periods according to the modes of State participation in health care: 1917-1958 (creation and slow growth of health care institutions); 1959-1967 (growth of scientific medicine); 1968-1979 (crisis period); and 1980-1988 (reform). In each one of these periods the evolution of medical manpower is analysed through the actions of three main actors: the State, the universities and the medical profession.