Suchergebnisse

Mining cycles have had an enormous impact in the evolution of the localisation of economic activity, in particular of industry, in Chile. The nitrate cycle was characterised by a labour‐intensive extraction process and activity which was geographically very concentrated. The copper cycle was geographically more dispersed and its activity more capital‐intensive. We stress the role played by the State in the latter de‐concentration due to the impact of regional development policies and assess the importance of factor endowments and agglomeration economies, in the localisation of the manufacture.

This paper studies the evolution of regional inequality in Iberia from 1900 to 2000 from a geographical perspective. For doing that the text presents a new dataset of historical regional GDPs for Spanish NUTS III and Portuguese Historical Districts (HD), synthetic indices of regional inequality and different measures of spatial correlation across regional pc GDPs. The results show that Portuguese and Spanish national economic integration processes initially favored the economic specialization across Iberian regions fostering the divergence in terms of their regional pc GDPs. Notwithstanding, ulterior advances in the integration of national markets and the subsequent first stages in the process of adhesion of these two national economies into the UE coexisted with a progressive reduction in Iberian regional inequality. So, Iberian regional inequality depicts a long term U-shaped evolution. Nevertheless, at the same time, Iberian regional inequality evolution followed a significant geographical pattern. The poorest regions cluster in inland territories of the south and west, with regions belonging to this cluster sited on the two sides of the political border. On the contrary, richest regions cluster along the coasts, especially in the north-east corner of the Iberian Peninsula. Besides, the data show that this pattern was well established in the middle of the XX century, before the reciprocal openness of national markets in the 1980s. In this respect, the adhesion of both economies to the UE in 1986 seems to have just caused an ulterior deepening in this historical pattern

El automóvil como bien de consumo duradero se difunde en la América Latina en el primer tercio del siglo XX. El comercio exterior determina su consumo en la región, a excepción de algunos países que en el decenio de los veinte consiguen instrumentar plantas de ensamblaje de automóviles con piezas importadas, lo que ocurre solamente allí donde coincide una cierta dimensión del mercado con una renta alta (Argentina, Brasil, México y Uruguay). Otros factores explicativos, aunque en un claro segundo plano, son la extensión de medidas proteccionistas y una mayor desigualdad en la distribución de la renta. Al respecto proponemos que hubo un efecto negativo en el consumo final cuando el consumo se sesgó hacia los automóviles de gama más cara; en tanto que en los países donde el consumo por habitante es alto se consumen cantidades proporcionalmente altas de vehículos de la gama de precios bajos. Las importaciones de automóviles muestran buena parte del consumo de automóviles y nos permiten calcular los vehículos en circulación, además de indicar cuales fueron los países en los que se desarrollaron experiencias propias en la producción de autos. El papel que en ellas desempeña los Estados Unidos es casi absoluto a partir de 1920, después de la primera Guerra Mundial, aunque anteriormente tiene que compartir buena parte del, aún reducido mercado, con varios países europeos (Francia, Italia, Alemania y Gran Bretaña).

AbstractThis research note discussesthe accuracyof the main sources used to study the foreign sector during the export-led growth process in Chile. Chilean foreign trade statistics are available for the period under analysis (1850-1930) and offered a good overview of products exported and imported. Bilateral trade data are also available providing information of exports and imports by origin and destiny. Although more research is needed on trade prices, we conclude that Chilean statistics are reliable and provide a way for understanding the export-led growth in Chile and the trade performance of the Chilean partners.

The relationship between natural capital and economic growth is an open debate in the field of economic development. Is an abundance of natural resources a blessing or a curse for economic performanceThe field of Economic History offers an excellent vantage to explore the relevance of institutions, technical progress and supply-demand drivers. Natural Resources and Economic Growth contains theoretical and empirical articles by leading scholars who have studied this subject in different historical periods from the 19th century to the present day and in different parts of the world. Part I presents the theoretical issues and discusses the meaning of the "curse" and the relevance of the historical perspective. Part II captures the diversity of experiences, presenting thirteen independent case studies based on historical results from North and South America, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Europe. This book emphasizes that an abundance of natural resources is not a fixed situation. It is a process that reacts to changes in the structure of commodity prices and factor endowments, and progress requires capital, labour, technical change and appropriate institutional arrangements. This abundance is not a given, but is part of the evolution of the economic system. History shows that institutional quality is the key factor to deal with abundant natural resources and, especially, with the rents derived from their use and exploitation. This wide ranging volume will be of great relevance to all those with an interest in economic history, development, economic growth, natural resources, world history and institutional economics

Chapter 1: Introduction-Time, space and economics in the history of Latin America -- Chapter 2: Comparing different estimation methodologies of regional GDPs in Latin American countries -- Chapter 3:Productive and regional development policies in Latin America since 1890 -- Chapter 4: Regional inequality in Latin American countries -- Chapter 4.1: Growth and convergence among Argentine provinces since 1895 -- Chapter 4.2: From West to East: Bolivian Regional GDPs since the 1950s. A story of natural resources and infrastructure -- Chapter 4.3: The evolution of regional income inequality in Brazil, 1872-2015 -- Chapter 4.4: Spatial inequality in Chile in the long run: a paradox of extreme concentration in absence of agglomeration forces (1890-2017) -- Chapter 4.5: Regional Economic Inequality in Colombia, 1926-2018 -- Chapter 4.6: Regional GDP in Mexico, 1895-2010 -- Chapter 4.7: Peruvian regional inequality: 1847-2017 -- Chapter 4.8:Patterns of regional income distribution in Uruguay (1872-2012): a story of agglomeration, natural resources and public policies -- Chapter 4.9: Was the oil sown evenly? Long-term patterns of regional inequality in Venezuela (1881-2011) -- Chapter 5: Spatial Inequality in Latin America (1895-2010): convergence and clusters in a long-run approach -- Chapter 6: Regional inequality in Latin America: does it mirror the European pattern?.

Abstract
Leveraging an original dataset on coastal shipping and invoking a new economic geography framework, we study the effects of domestic and international trade costs on industrial concentration and productivity growth in interwar Brazil. In the great wave of globalization before 1914, international trade costs were low and domestic costs high. Economic activity was dispersed along the coastline. The interwar period saw a reversal: international costs surged and domestic costs declined. Economic activity was increasingly concentrated in São Paulo. Agglomeration economies enabled productivity growth in the 1930s, mostly in durable and capital goods.

AbstractRegional trade in South America since independence has long been much smaller than would be expected if geography were the only constraint on trade. Several potential explanations exist, including low technological and demand complementarities; low productivity; and high natural and policy barriers to trade. Focusing on the latter explanations, policy makers have long advocated a South American/Southern Cone Free Trade Area—proposed as early as 1889. Would reductions in trade costs have been sufficient to raise trade significantly, or was trade low for other reasons? We study bilateral trade between 1910 and 1950, when large external shocks altered global supply and demand. These shocks help us show that intra‐regional trade could have been boosted by reductions in trade costs. Trade among Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Peru could have benefited from more benign trade policies or better infrastructure. Regional trade in textiles, which took off from the 1930s, supports our argument that trade improved when trade costs fell.