Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T18:55:28.516Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Traversing the Social Pyramid: A Comparative Review of Income Distribution in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Richard Weisskoff
Affiliation:
Iowa State University
Adolfo Figueroa
Affiliation:
Universidad Católica del Perú
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

DUKE:

Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,

Such a dependency of thing on thing,

As e'er I heard in madness.

ISABEL:

O a gracious Duke,

Harp not on that! nor do not banish reason

For inequality, but let your reason serve

To make the truth appear where it seems hid

And hide the false seems true!

Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

The study of the distribution of income summarizes a nation's social organization and the outcome of the forces of social change. The measurement of income distribution itself yields a type of social scorecard, the resolution of claims by competing groups for the economy's output. As an indication of social justice, income distribution measures as well the extent to which different groups share in a nation's economic progress.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1976 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

Presented at the ECIEL International Conference on Income, Consumption, and Prices sponsored by the Brookings Institution and the Institut für Iberoamerika-Kunde, held in Hamburg, 1-3 October 1973, and revised for the Second Latin American Conference of ECIEL and the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, held in Rio de Janeiro, 7-10 January 1974. A different version of this research, emphasizing methodological aspects of measuring income distribution, is to be published by the Brookings Institution in a conference volume edited by Robert Ferber and Joseph Grunwald. In the meantime, the methodological appendices are available on request from the authors. In this presentation to LARR readers, we condense the summary statistics and include a sociodemographic analysis of the urban pyramid. We are grateful to the following ECIEL institutes for allowing us to use their information: CEDE (Colombia), CEPADES (Paraguay), CISEPA (Peru); and to Felipe Musgrove (Brookings Institution) for helping us process that information. We acknowledge financial support of the Junta del Acuerdo de Cartagena (Lima), and the National Bureau of Economic Research (New York) through a collaborative grant for Latin American research.

References

Bibliography and Sources

1. ARGENTINA, CONSEJO NACIONAL DE DESARROLLO. Distribución del ingreso y cuentas nacionales en la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Investigación Conjunta CONADECEPAL, 1965. Vol. 4, Distribución del ingreso por niveles.Google Scholar
2. Berry, Albert. “Farm Size Distribution, Income Distribution and the Efficiency of Agricultural Production: Colombia,” American Economic Review 62:403408.Google Scholar
3. Berry, Albert. “Some Determinants of Changing Income Distribution in Colombia: 1930-1970.” Mimeographed. Discussion Paper 137. New Haven: Yale Economic Growth Center, 22 March 1972.Google Scholar
4. Brazil, FundaÇÃO I.B.G.E. Tabulaçoes avancadas do censo demográfico VIII, recenseamento geral 1970: Resultados preliminares. Rio de Janeiro: July 1971.Google Scholar
5. Camargo, JosÉ Francisco De. “Uma pesquisa piloto de orçamentos familiares,” Problemas Brasileiros 10 (May 1972): 411.Google Scholar
6. Cavalcanti, Clovis De Vasconcelos. “A renda familiar e por habitante na cidade do Recife.” Pesquisa e planejamento econômico 2 (June 1972): 81104.Google Scholar
7. COSTA RICA, INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES, ESCUELA DE CIENCIAS ECONÓMICAS Y SOCIALES. “Costa Rica: La distribución el ingreso y el consumo de algunos alimentos.” Preliminary version. Mimeographed. San José: Ciudad Universitaria, 1972.Google Scholar
8. COLOMBIA, DEPARTAMENTO ADMINISTRATIVO NACIONAL DE ESTADÍSTICA (DANE). Análisis econométrico de distribución de ingresos. Directed by Políbio Córdova. Bogotá: Undated, but apparently circa 1972.Google Scholar
9. ESTUDIOS CONJUNTOS SOBRE INTEGRACIÓN ECONÓMICA LATINOAMERICANA (ECIEL) —The Brookings Institution. Collaborative Studies on Income Distributions of Colombia (Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cali, Medellín), Paraguay (Asunción), Perú (Lima), and Venezuela (Caracas, Maracaibo).Google Scholar
10. Figueroa, Adolfo. “Distribuição da renda: Estrutura da demanda e emprego.” Pesquisa e planejamento econômico 2 (December 1972):227-56.Google Scholar
11. Figueroa, Adolfo. “El impacto de las reformas actuales sobre la distribución del ingreso en el Peru” in Distribución del ingreso. Edited by Foxley, Alejandro. México, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1974.Google Scholar
12. Fishlow, Albert. “Brazilian Size Distribution of Income.” American Economic Review 62 (May 1972): 391402. Also “Technical Appendix,” by A. Fishlow and A. Meesook. Mimeographed. May 1972.Google Scholar
13. Fitzwilliams, Jeannette. “Size Distribution of Income in 1963,” Survey of Current Business 44 (April 1964): 311.Google Scholar
14. Heskia, Isabel. “Distribución del ingreso en Chile.” Santiago de Chile: CEPLAN, March 1973.Google Scholar
15. Langoni, Carlos. “Distribuição da renda e desenvolvimento econômico do Brasil.” Estudos Econômicos 2 (October 1972):5-88.Google Scholar
16. MÉXICO, BANCO DE MÉXICO, OFICINA DE ESTUDIOS SOBRE PROYECCIONES AGRÍCOLAS. Encuesta sobre ingresos y gastos familiares en México 1963. México, D.F., 1966.Google Scholar
17. Mujica Ateaga, Rodrigo, and Fernando Martinez, P-C.Efecto de al redistribución de los ingresos em la demanda por alimentos: Chile 1970-1980.” Serie A: Trabajos de Investigación N 5. Santiago de Chile: Departamento de Economía Agraria, Universidad Católica de Chile, March 1973.Google Scholar
18. MunÕZ, Oscar and Foxley, Alejandro. “Redistribución del ingreso, crecimiento económico y estructura social: El caso Chileno.” In Distribución del ingreso. Edited by Foxley, Alejandro. México, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1974.Google Scholar
19. Navarrete, Ifigenia M. De. La distribución del ingreso y el desarrollo económico de México. México, D.F.: Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas, Escuela Nacional de Economía, 1960.Google Scholar
20. Navarrete, Ifigenia M. De. “La distribución del ingreso en México: Tendencias y perspectivas.” In El pérfil de México en 1980. Vol. 1. Edited by Urquidi, Victor L. México, D.F.: Siglo Veintiuno, 1970.Google Scholar
21. Orellana, Rene Arturo. Encuesta sobre ingreso y gastos de la familia del campesino asalariado de Guatemala 1966. Guatemala City: Instituto de Investigaciones Económica y Sociales, Universidad de San Carlos, not dated.Google Scholar
22. Orellana, Rene Arturo. and De Leon, Adolfo. Ingresos y gastos de familias urbanas de Guatemala. Guatemala City: Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas Y Sociales, 1972.Google Scholar
23. Puente Leyva, Jesus. Distribución del ingreso en un area urbana: El caso de Monterrey. México, D.F.: Siglo Veintiuno, 1969.Google Scholar
24. PUERTO RICO. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, SPECIAL ECONOMIC STUDIES DIVISION. Income and Expenditures of Families in Puerto Rico in 1953. San Juan, not dated.Google Scholar
25. PUERTO RICO. Income and Expenditures of Families in Puerto Rico in 1963. San Juan, February 1967.Google Scholar
26. Tiacci Kirsten, JosÉ. “Metodologia da construção de indices de preços ao consumidor custo de vida.” Ph.D. dissertation, Universidad de São Paulo, 1972.Google Scholar
27. Urrutia, Miguel, and De Sandoval, Clara. “La distribución de ingresos entre los perceptores de renta en Colombia—1964.” Revista del Banco de la República 513 (July 1970):9871006.Google Scholar
28. Webb, Richard. “The Distribution of Income in Peru.” Mimeographed. Discussion Paper No. 26. Princeton: Research Program in Economic Development, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, September 1972.Google Scholar
29. Webb, Richard. “Government Policy and the Distribution of Income in Peru, 1963-1973.” Mimeographed. Discussion Paper No. 26. Princeton: Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, June 1973.Google Scholar
30. Webb, Richard. “The Incidence of Government Policy on Poverty in Guatemala.” A Report Prepared for the World Bank, 6 April 1973. Mimeographed.Google Scholar
31. Webb, Richard. “Tax Policy and the Incidence of Taxation in Peru.” Mimeographed. Discussion Paper No. 27. Princeton: Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, September 1972.Google Scholar
32. Weisskoff, Richard. “Income Distribution and Economic Growth in Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Mexico.” Review of Income and Wealth 16 (December 1970):303–32. Reprinted in La economía mexicana. Edited by Leopoldo Solís. México, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económico, 1973.Google Scholar