Pan investigates the evolution of industrial policies adopted by developing countries within the context of a globalizing world. His dissertation specifically examines the economic policies of the Mexican government during what historians and social scientists have heralded as its era of state-led industrialization (1934-1985). He traces how the Mexican government pursued a combination of free trade and protectionist economic policies to promote economic development, as well as the ensuing policy trade-off it faced between labor welfare and industrialization. He shows why this trade-off was particularly acute in its labor-intensive industrializing economy and why attempts to resolve the trade-off ultimately proved unsuccessful.
His project leverages previously untapped archives to reevaluate this historical narrative, revealing the underlying factors influencing industrial and trade policies, labor collective bargaining, and business lobbying. He has therefore been conducting extensive data collection from government, union, and business archives in Mexico. Pan’s findings will be disseminated through scholarly publications. He will turn the dissertation into a book and publish two related articles: one focusing on Mexico’s profit-sharing law and another on the history of Bancomext, Mexico's national export credit agency.
Through the Idea Lab, he also intends to create lasting networks among historians and social scientists, fostering much-needed collaboration and the development of new methodologies for studying historical political economy.
