Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T02:52:37.215Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Latin America

Stalled Catching Up

from Part I - Regional Developments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2021

By
Pablo Astorga  and
Alfonso Herranz-Loncán
Edited by
Stephen Broadberry  and
Kyoji Fukao
Stephen Broadberry
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Kyoji Fukao
Affiliation:
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
Get access

Summary

Latin America made considerable progress in living standards between 1870 and 2010 amid rapid modernization and structural change. However, despite these remarkable advances, the income gap between the region and the industrial leaders remains significant. This chapter assesses the long-term performance of Latin America relative to the developed world and discusses the key transformations in Latin America. Excess volatility, poor productivity and high inequality remain essential to explaining why the region has been unable to converge with the industrialized core through advances in human capital, R&D, and infrastructure investment. In order to improve future prospects in standards of living and catching up, the region would need to adopt a development model that delivers sustained and inclusive economic growth. Key elements of this model are a higher rate of investment, a proactive industrial policy, tighter intra-regional integration, and greater redistribution to finance a better quality of education and inclusive social services.

Keywords

Latin Americaincome convergencehuman developmenteconomic growthindustrializationincome inequalityproductivity.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World , pp. 251 - 275
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arroyo, L. and Astorga, P. (2017). ‘Latin American Earnings Inequality in the Long Run’, Cliometrica, 11, 349–374.Google Scholar
Astorga, P. (2017). ‘Real Wages and Skill Premiums in Latin America, 1900–2011’, Revista de Historia Económica – Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 35, 319–353.Google Scholar
Astorga, P. (2019). The Tails and the Middle: Secular Trends in Income Shares in Latin America. Unpublished research paper.Google Scholar
Astorga, P., Bérges, A. R., and FitzGerald, E. V. K. (2005). ‘The Standard of Living in Latin America During the Twentieth Century’, Economic History Review, 58, 765–796.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Astorga, P., Bérges, A. R., and FitzGerald, E. V. K. (2011). ‘Productivity Growth in Latin America During the Twentieth Century’, Review of Income and Wealth, 57, 203–223.Google Scholar
Bértola, L. (2016). ‘El PIB per cápita de Uruguay 1870–2015: una reconstrucción’, working paper 48, Economic and Social History Programme, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad de la República, Uruguay.Google Scholar
Bértola, L. and Ocampo, J. A. (2012). The Economic Development of Latin America since Independence, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bértola, L., Calicchio, L., Camou, M., and Porcile, G. (1999). ‘Southern Cone Real Wages Compared: A Purchasing Power Parity Approach to Convergent and Divergent Trends, 1870–1996’, working paper 44, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad de la República, Uruguay.Google Scholar
Bignon, V., Esteves, R., and Herranz-Loncán, A. (2015). ‘Big Push or Big Grab? Railways, Government Activism and Export Growth in Latin America, 1865–1913’, Economic History Review, 68, 1277–1305.Google Scholar
Bulmer-Thomas, V. (2013). The Economic History of Latin America since Independence, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Castellacci, F. and Natera, J. M. (2016). ‘Innovation, Absorptive Capacity and Growth Heterogeneity: Development Paths in Latin America 1970–2010’, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 37, 27–42.Google Scholar
Coatsworth, J. H. (2008). ‘Inequality, Institutions and Economic Growth in Latin America’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 40, 545–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). (2018). CEPALSTAT|Databases and Statistical Publications (data accessed May 2017–May 2018).Google Scholar
Ferreira, F. H. G. and Robalino, D. A. (2011). ‘Social Protection in Latin America: Achievements and Limitations’, in Ocampo, J. A. and Ros, J. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Economics, Oxford University Press, 836–862.Google Scholar
Frankema, E. (2009a). Has Latin America Always Been Unequal? A Comparative Study of Asset and Income Inequality in the Long Twentieth Century, Boston, MA: Brill.Google Scholar
Frankema, E. (2009b). ‘The Expansion of Mass Education in Twentieth-Century Latin America: A Global Comparative Perspective’, Revista de Historia Económica – Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 27, 359–396.Google Scholar
Gómez Galvarriato, A. and Williamson, J. G. (2008). ‘Was It Prices, Productivity or Policy? The Timing and Pace of Latin American Industrialisation after 1870’, NBER working paper 13990, National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuntz-Ficker, S. (ed.) (2017). The First Export Era Revisited. Reassessing its Contribution to Latin American Economies, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Lindert, P. (2010). ‘The Unequal Lag in Latin American Schooling since 1900: Follow the Money’, Revista de Historia Económica – Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 28, 375–405.Google Scholar
Lindert, P. and Williamson, J. G. (2016). Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1774, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Maddison Project Database, version 2013. Bolt, J. and van Zanden, J. L. (2014). ‘The Maddison Project: Collaborative Research on Historical National Accounts’, Economic History Review, 67, 627–651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montevideo–Oxford Latin American Economic History Database (MOxLAD). Latin American Centre, University of Oxford, and Universidad de la República, Uruguay.Google Scholar
Office of National Statistics. (2018). Labour market database (data accessed May 2018).Google Scholar
Officer, L. H. and Williamson, S. H. (2017). Annual Wages in the United States, 1774–Present, MeasuringWorth, available online at www.measuringworth.com/datasets/uswage (data accessed 2017).Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. (2007). ‘When Did Latin America Fall Behind?’, in Edwards, S., Esquivel, G., and Márquez, G. (eds.), The Decline of Latin American Economies: Growth, Institutions, and Crises, University of Chicago Press, 15–57.Google Scholar
Reher, D. and Requena, M. (2014). ‘Was There a Mid-Twentieth-Century Fertility Boom in Latin America?’, Revista de Historia Económica – Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 32, 319–350.Google Scholar
Rodrik, D. (2014). ‘The Past, Present, and Future of Economic Growth’, Challenge, 57, 5–39.Google Scholar
Rubio, M., Yáñez, C., Folchi, M., and Carreras, A. (2010). ‘Energy as an Indicator of Modernisation in Latin America, 1890–1925’, Economic History Review, 63, 769–804.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tafunell, X. and Ducoing, C. (2016). ‘Non-Residential Capital Stock in Latin America, 1875–2008: New Estimates and International Comparisons’, Australian Economic History Review, 56, 46–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorp, R. (1998). Progress, Poverty and Exclusion: An Economic History of Latin America in the Twentieth Century, Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar
US Census Bureau. (1975). Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. G. (1995). ‘The Evolution of Global Labor Markets since 1830: Background Evidence and Hypotheses’, Explorations in Economic History, 32, 141–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, J. G. (1999). ‘Real Wage Inequality and Globalisation in Latin America before 1940’, Revista de Historia Económica, 17, 101–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolff, E. (1991). ‘Capital Formation and Productivity Convergence over the Long Term’, American Economic Review, 81, 565–579.Google Scholar
World Inequality Database. https://wid.world/data/ (accessed 29 September 2020).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×