Growth, inequality, and poverty in Spain, 1850-2000: evidence and speculation.

Was the Civil War (1936-39) originated by staggering inequality and extreme poverty? How did Franco's dictatorship (1939-75) affect inequality and poverty? As a first step to provide an answer, growth and inequality over the long-run are assessed and their impact on absolute poverty calibrated. The paper concludes that during the last one and a half centuries economic growth, but also the decline in inequality during the Interwar years and since the late 1950s, led to a substantial reduction in absolute poverty. Raising inequality and poverty do not seem to have triggered the Civil War

European patterns of development in historical perspective

Europe provides a suitable scenario for testing empirical regularities of growth since, to a large extent, its countries share institutions, policies, and resource endowments. Patterns of development, which associate structural change with variations in GDP per head and population, are constructed for modern Europe (1850-1990) along the lines of Chenery and Syrquin's pathbreaking work. Thus, it is possible to discern whether a common set of development processes is observable for the whole continent and whether countries that had a late start exhibited, as suggested by Gerschenkron, a differential behaviour in terms of accumulation, resource allocation, and demographic transition. The results tend to confirm the different nature of latecomers' development.Publicad

When did Latin America fall behind? : evidence from long-run international inequality

When did Latin America fall behind?. Has the gap between developed countries and Latin America widened over time?. This paper addresses these recurrent questions with the tools provided by the inequality literature. Long-run inter-country inequality is assessed in terms of real (purchasing power-adjusted) GDP per head and of an 'improved' human development index as an indicator of welfare for present-day OECD and Latin America. A long term rise in income inequality is observed for this sample of countries with the deepening gap between OECD and Latin America as its main determinant. Contrary to a widespread view, in terms of income, Latin America fell behind in the late twentieth century. Inequality in terms of human development declined over time, but the gap between OECD and Latin America remained largely unchanged

Improving human development: a long-run view.

The pessimistic flavour of the Human Development Reports appears to be in contradiction with their own numbers as developing countries fare comparatively better in human development than in per capita GDP terms. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by providing a new, ‘improved’ human development index (IHDI), informed by welfare economics. The IHDI is presented here alongside the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) HDI for the world and its main regions since the late 19th century. Social dimensions in the IHDI are derived, following Kakwani (Journal of Development Economics 41 (1993), pp. 307–336), with a convex achievement function, whereas a geometric average is employed to combine its dimensions (longevity, knowledge and income). Thus, the IHDI does not conceal the gap between rich and poor countries and casts a much less optimistic view than the conventional UNDP index, while it fits with the UNDP concern for international differences. The paper’s findings highlight main weaknesses in human development dimensions of present-day developing countries.Education; Human development; Life expectancy; Per capita GDPs;

Lost decades? : independence and latin America’s falling behind, 1820-1870.

This paper explores the connections between independence and Latin America’s relative decline during the half a century after independence. The release of the fiscal burden was partly offset by higher costs of self-government, while opening up to the international economy represented a handmaiden of growth. Colonial emancipation had a different impact across regions and widened regional disparities. Per capita income grew and though Latin America fell behind to the U.S. and Western Europe, improved or kept its relative position to the rest of the world. ‘Lost decades’ seems an unwarranted depiction of the period 1820-1870.Latin America; Independence; Growth; Falling behind; Lost decades;

WHEN DID LATIN AMERICA FALL BEHIND?.EVIDENCE FROM LONG-RUN INTERNATIONAL INEQUALITY

When did Latin America fall behind?. Has the gap between developed countries and Latin America widened over time?. This paper addresses these recurrent questions with the tools provided by the inequality literature. Long-run inter-country inequality is assessed in terms of real (purchasing power-adjusted) GDP per head and of an ‘improved’ human development index as an indicator of welfare for present-day OECD and Latin America. A long term rise in income inequality is observed for this sample of countries with the deepening gap between OECD and Latin America as its main determinant. Contrary to a widespread view, in terms of income, Latin America fell behind in the late twentieth century. Inequality in terms of human development declined over time, but the gap between OECD and Latin America remained largely unchanged.

Growth, Inequality, and Poverty in Spain, 1850-2000: Evidence and Speculation.

Was the Civil War (1936-39) originated by staggering inequality and extreme poverty? How did Franco’s dictatorship (1939-75) affect inequality and poverty? As a first step to provide an answer, growth and inequality over the long-run are assessed and their impact on absolute poverty calibrated. The paper concludes that during the last one and a half centuries economic growth, but also the decline in inequality during the Interwar years and since the late 1950s, led to a substantial reduction in absolute poverty. Raising inequality and poverty do not seem to have triggered the Civil War.