Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T01:34:38.813Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Poverty and Inequality in Latin America: A Neostructural Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Joseph R. Ramos
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Two facts stand out from even the most cursory inspection of income distribution data in Latin America. First, income is highly concentrated, making the region one of the most unequal in the world. Second, despite the fact that the region has now reached an intermediate position among the world's nations in terms of per capita income (some US$2,000 per year on average), a level which, by historical standards, would presuppose a more equitable distribution of income, this has not happened. In fact, the distribution of income in Latin America has become, if anything, more highly skewed than ever. The question then is: why is this so? The explanation forms the heart of this paper. Precisely because neither of these statements would hold if the countries to which they apply were either “average” or “well-behaved,” the explanation thatfollows assumesa “neostructuralist perspective” (Lustig, 1991) — i.e., one that ascribes causality to a number of regional charactristics related to its history and the interaction among its factor, cultural, and institutional endowments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 38 , Issue 2-3: Special Double Issue: Poverty and Inequality in Latin America , Fall 1996 , pp. 141 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1996

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

Altimir, O. (1994), “Income Distribution and Poverty through Crisis and Adjustment.” CEPAL Review 52 (April).Google Scholar
Barraclough, S. and Domike, A. (1966), “Agrarian Structure in Seven Latin American Countries.” Land Economics XLII, 9 (November): 391–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, T. (1961), “The Land Reform Issue in Latin America,” in Latin American Issues: Essays and Comments. New York, NY: Twentieth Century Fund.Google Scholar
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) (1994) Social Panorama of Latin America. Santiago de Chile: United Nations, ECLAC.Google Scholar
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) (1992) Education-Knowledge: Basic Pillars of Changing Production Patterns with Social Equity. Santiago de Chile: United Nations, ECLAC.Google Scholar
Engermann, S. and Sokoloff, K. (1994) Factor Endowments, Institutions and Different Paths of Growth among New World Economies: A View from Economic Historians of the United States. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research Google Scholar
Furtado, C. (1979) Economía Latinoamericana: Formación Histórica y Problemas Contemporáneos. México, DF: Siglo Veintiuno.Google Scholar
Kuznets, S. (1995), “Economic Growth and Income Inequality.” American Economic Review 22 (May).Google Scholar
Lustig, N. “Equidad y Desarrollo,” in Sunkel, O. (comp.) El Desarrollo desde Dentro: Un Enfoque Neoestructuralista para la América Latina. México, DF: Fondo de Cultura Económica.Google Scholar
North, D. (1966) The Economic Growth of the United States, 1790-1860. New York, NY: Norton.Google Scholar
Ramos, J. (1981) “On the Prospects of Social Market Democracy andDemocratic Capitalism in Latin America,” pp. 68–72 in Novak, M. (ed.) Liberation South, Liberation North. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute. Google Scholar
(The) World Bank (1993) The East Asian Miracle. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar