Este trabajo presenta un análisis de la desigualdad regional en Castilla en la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII, a partir del estudio del consumo per cápita provincial calculado con las recaudaciones de dos rentas que supusieron los mayores ingresos fiscales del estado: alcabalas y cientos. La desigualdad regional presentó unos niveles reducidos y constantes durante la segunda mitad del siglo, analizando la productividad del trabajo, no encontrando elementos que alterasen significativamente la diferencia entre regiones. Asimismo, podemos señalar que se advierten las dificultades relacionadas con el sector agrario, con limitaciones a la producción y bajos rendimientos. Esas dificultades trataron de minimizarse con actuaciones reformistas que, no obstante, no tuvieron un claro impacto sobre la desigualdad, que permaneció homogénea.

This paper presents a new dataset of enrolment rates and grade distribution ratios (GDR) in Brazil between 1933 and 2010, in addition to enrolment rates and GDR of Brazilian states from 1955 to 2010. To our knowledge, there are no previous estimates of enrolment rates by states for such a long period in Brazil. Enrolment rates and GDR in northern and north-eastern states were meagre and comparable to the lowest Latin American performers, and even the most advanced Brazilian states lagged behind the early leaders of the region, such as Argentina and Uruguay, until the turn of the century. Given a certain enrolment rate, Brazilian states were expected to present lower GDR compared to Latin American countries on average.

What was the degree of Brazil's regional inequality in living standards during the first decades of the 20th century? This paper presents municipal and state information on wages and prices in order to build welfare ratios for skilled and unskilled workers between 1912 and 1940. Despite the significant differences in nominal wages and costs of living throughout the country, real wage differentials remained lower than those estimated by earlier studies. Williamson (1999) argued that real wages in the Southeast were approximately six times higher than in the Northeast during the 1930s. The new evidence in this paper suggests that wages were on average only 1.5 times higher.

Price statistics and, in particular, food price statistics are much more abundant that those of consumption. In this article we use price statistics to analyze the qualitative variations in consumption and, specifically, the diet composition, a variable which is difficult to observe, but has remarkable implications in the evolution of living standards, health and mortality. Our analysis focuses on the years between 1910 and 1912, in a period of important changes in Spanish mortality, in order to analyze the provincial variation in the level and structure of food prices. The estimated relative price indexes suggest significant regional differences in diets which should be taken into account in living standards and mortality studies.