In the past decade and a half, the number of pages about the Mexican economy written each year in scholarly journals by social scientists increased over 400 percent. In this bibliometric study, we analyze over 1,000 articles published from 1978 to 1995. We find a cycle in the number of pages published over time and relate the cycle to systemic changes in the Mexican economy. We identify the principal authors, journals and research fields such as international trade. We also analyze the contributions to this literature of Spanish language journals and of authors with Spanish surnames.