Latin American Economic Development: 1950-1980

The paper stresses the evolutionary and adaptive experience of Latin American growth between 1950 and 1980, and provides a synthetic view by considering the sources of growth within a simple production framework. Regressions use quinquennial panel data for 18 Latin American countries.They provide an estimate of the net return to investment, of the elasticity of output to labor and of the contribution of other variables with influence on efficiency. The regressions show that Latin American growth varied systematically with trade performance. The paper provides information on the effects of inflation upon per capita income growth in the region. There is a negative correlation: an inflation rate of even 20 percent reduces the per capita growth rate by 0.4 percentage point, or almost 1.5 percent of the regional mean of 3 percent growth between 1950 and 1980. This result does not hold, however, once high inflation observations are excluded. Finally we call attention to the persistent problems of income distribution and poverty.

Schooling and Poor Children in 19th-Century America

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68138/2/10.1177_000276429203500307.pd

Inward-Looking Policies, Institutions, Autocrats, and Economic Growth in Latin America: An Empirical Exploration

This paper explores the institutional determinants of economic growth in Latin America by taking advantage of recent empirical research that employs subjective and objective measures to test for a possible Northian explanation that links institutional quality and economic growth. I provide a framework that helps better understand the policymakers` choices and persistence regarding inward-looking policies that were pursued between the 1930s and the 1980s by arguing that in the Latin American case Olson`s (1982) idea of encompassing interest should be expanded to cover not only the economic stakes of power holders, but also, their political stakes, somewhat along the lines of work by Robinson (1997)

Inconvenient glow: Cliometrics and the "golden age" of capitalism

This paper aims to criticize the recent cliometrics literature on the so-called "golden age" of capitalism. The works of Nicholas Crafts, Gianni Toniolo, and Barry Eichengreen are reconstructed in order to reveal the main characteristics of this research program. Its narrow quantitative focus, its reliance on theoretical propositions borrowed from neoclassical economics, and its auspicious interpretation of the postwar reconstruction are the main focus of the criticism presented. Finally, the cliometricians' attempt to historicize the "golden age" and de-historicize the following decades is related to the ideological understanding of the recent decades as a period of "great moderation."