Skills formation is a pressing issue for middle‐income countries given the pace of technological change. In Latin America, scholars point to the hierarchical type of capitalism and its segmentalist skills formation system as the main roadblocks to exiting the middle‐income trap. Yet we contend that focusing on national models of capitalism is limited because they do not explain within‐country variations in highly unequal contexts. That is the case of the emergence of state‐business cooperation for skills formation in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, which seems to contradict the national hierarchical pattern. Hence, subnational analysis might uncover alternative pathways. This paper presents a framework for understanding subnational dynamics in middle‐income countries, where concerted skills formation systems may emerge. We claim that a combination of external competitive threats and state‐led initiatives, like the creation of organizational clusters, can harness business collective action toward coordination in skills formation. To illustrate and further develop our model, we first identify Nuevo León's superior skills availability as well as its state and business associative capacities against the rest of the Mexican states. Next, we conduct a qualitative case study of Nuevo León as a pathway case to process‐trace the operation of the hypothesized mechanisms. Our analysis underscores the joint relevance of local state and business associative capacities for skills formation in adverse institutional contexts.

中文翻译：

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从等级资本主义到发展治理：中等收入国家协调一致的技能形成的出现


鉴于技术变革的速度，技能培养是中等收入国家面临的一个紧迫问题。在拉丁美洲，学者们指出，等级森严的资本主义及其分割主义技能形成系统是摆脱中等收入陷阱的主要障碍。然而，我们认为，关注资本主义的国家模式是有限的，因为它们无法解释在高度不平等的背景下国家内部的差异。墨西哥新莱昂州出现的政商合作就是这种情况，以促进技能培养，这似乎与国家等级模式相矛盾。因此，地方分析可能会发现替代途径。本文提出了一个框架，用于理解中等收入国家的地方动态，这些国家可能会出现协调一致的技能形成系统。我们声称，外部竞争威胁和国家主导的举措（如创建组织集群）相结合，可以利用商业集体行动来协调技能形成。为了说明和进一步发展我们的模型，我们首先确定了新莱昂州与墨西哥其他州相比卓越的技能可用性及其州和企业关联能力。接下来，我们对 Nuevo León 进行定性案例研究，作为过程追踪假设机制作的途径案例。我们的分析强调了地方、州和企业的关联能力与不利制度背景下技能形成的共同相关性。