Land-use profiles of agrarian income and land ownership inequality in the province of Barcelona in mid-nineteenth century

According to the existing literature, when land remained the most abundant factor an increase in market integration is expected to lead to a greater inequality in wealth or income distribution. However, several case studies on the vineyard specialization experienced in Catalonia during the 18th and 19th centuries suggested another outcome: land ownership and agrarian income became less uneven, not the opposite. The outstanding interpretation posed by Catalan rural historians deserves to be confirmed or rejected by applying different inequality and polarization indices (Gini, Theil and top incomes), and innovative methods (inequality possible frontier and extraction ratios), to the big dataset we have been able to assemble with the information provided for every cadastral taxpayer of each municipality in the Distribution of Personal Wealth in Real Estate Ownership in the Province of Barcelona published in 1852 by the Official Gazette, combined with other population and land-use data listed in a Land-Use Statistics of the Province of Barcelona compiled in 1858. The results confirm that landownership and income inequality were lower in winegrowing municipalities than in cereal-cropping or forest ones, in spite of the fact that commercial specialization and higher population densities could have meant an extended frontier of possible inequality.agrarian income distribution, land ownership, personal inequality, regional inequality, land-use patterns, tax burden

Geographical deviations in foreign trade statistics: A study into European trade with Latin American Countries, 1925

We have analyzed the spatial accuracy of European foreign trade statistics compared to Latin American. We have also included USA’s data because of the importance of this country in Latin American trade. We have developed a method for mapping discrepancies between exporters and importers, trying to isolate systematic spatial deviations. Although our results don’t allow a unique explanation, they present some interesting clues to the distribution channels in the Latin American Continent as well as some spatial deviations for statistics in individual countries. Connecting our results with the literature specialized in the accuracy of foreign trade statistics; we can revisit Morgernstern (1963) as well as Federico and Tena (1991). Morgernstern had had a really pessimistic view on the reliability of this statistic source, but his main alert was focused on the trade balances, not in gross export or import values. Federico and Tena (1991) have demonstrated how accuracy increases by aggregation, geographical and of product at the same time. But they still have a pessimistic view with relation to distribution questions, remarking that perhaps it will be more accurate to use import sources in this latest case. We have stated that the data set coming from foreign trade statistics for a sample in 1925, being it exporters or importers, it’s a valuable tool for geography of trade patterns, although in some specific cases it needs some spatial adjustments.Economic geography, statistical accuracy, foreign trade statistics

Las importaciones de relojes y automóviles en América Latina durante 1925

En esta nota de investigación se presentan los primeros resultados del trabajo que sobre las importaciones de relojes y automóviles se ha realizado sobre veinte países de América Latina durante el año 1925. Dos objetivos están en el centro de nuestras preocupaciones, por una parte probar la calidad de las fuentes disponibles para el estudio de las importaciones de bienes de consumo duradero en América Latina, o sea las Estadísticas de Comercio Exterior de los países importadores latinoamericanos y exportadores del G5 (Reino Unido, Estados Unidos, Alemania, Francia y Bélgica) ya que al tratarse de una investigación pionera que no cuenta con antecedentes en la región requiere de un análisis detallado de la calidad de la información; y por otra, nos interesa someter a una primera prueba algunas de las hipótesis con las cuales aspiramos a dar una proyección futura a la investigación sobre importaciones de bienes de consumo duradero en América Latina.In this work in progress we show the early stage of a broadly research project on the imports of clocks and cars that has been carried for twenty countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, during the year 1925. Two objectives are in the centre of our interest. First, to test the quality of the available sources for the study of the import of consumer durable goods in Latin America, that is to say the statistics of foreign trade of the Latin- merican importers and G5 exporters, the main suppliers (United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France and Belgium); this is a pioneering investigation that does not have the quality detailed analysis that the region requires. On the other hand, we have some interest to test some of the hypothesis of a future projection of the investigation on the imports of consumer durables goods in Latin America

Land-use profiles of agrarian income and land ownership inequality in the province of Barcelona in mid-nineteenth century

According to the existing literature, when land remained the most abundant factor an increase in market integration is expected to lead to a greater inequality in wealth or income distribution. However, several case studies on the vineyard specialization experienced in Catalonia during the 18th and 19th centuries suggested another outcome: land ownership and agrarian income became less uneven, not the opposite. The outstanding interpretation posed by Catalan rural historians deserves to be confirmed or rejected by applying different inequality and polarization indices (Gini, Theil and top incomes), and innovative methods (inequality possible frontier and extraction ratios), to the big dataset we have been able to assemble with the information provided for every cadastral taxpayer of each municipality in the Distribution of Personal Wealth in Real Estate Ownership in the Province of Barcelona published in 1852 by the Official Gazette, combined with other population and land-use data listed in a Land-Use Statistics of the Province of Barcelona compiled in 1858. The results confirm that landownership and income inequality were lower in winegrowing municipalities than in cereal-cropping or forest ones, in spite of the fact that commercial specialization and higher population densities could have meant an extended frontier of possible inequality

Las importaciones de relojes y automóviles en América Latina durante 1925. Una aproximación desde el punto de vista de la renta y su distribución

En esta nota de investigación se presentan los primeros resultados del trabajo que sobre las importaciones de relojes y automóviles se ha realizado sobre veinte países de América Latina durante el año 1925. Dos objetivos están en el centro de nuestras preocupaciones, por una parte probar la calidad de las fuentes disponibles para el estudio de las importaciones de bienes de consumo duradero en América Latina, o sea las Estadísticas de Comercio Exterior de los países importadores latinoamericanos y exportadores del G5 (Reino Unido, Estados Unidos, Alemania, Francia y Bélgica) ya que al tratarse de una investigación pionera que no cuenta con antecedentes en la región requiere de un análisis detallado de la calidad de la información; y por otra, nos interesa someter a una primera prueba algunas de las hipótesis con las cuales aspiramos a dar una proyección futura a la investigación sobre importaciones de bienes de consumo duradero en América Latina