Suchergebnisse

Catalonia was the only Mediterranean region among the early followers of the British industrial revolution. The roots of this process can be traced back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the Catalan economy became integrated into international trade, and a successful printed calico industry concentrated in the city of Barcelona. Although the factory system was largely adopted by the cotton industry in the 1840s, the diffusion of the spinning jenny in Catalonia had occurred earlier, in the 1790s. In line with Allen, this article explores whether relative factor prices played a role in the widespread adoption of the spinning jenny in Catalonia. First, series of real wages in Barcelona are supplied for the period 1500–1808. Second, the prices of labour and capital are compared and the potential profitability of the adoption of the spinning jenny is analysed. Findings show that although Catalonia was not a high wage economy in the way that Britain was in the second half of the eighteenth century, evidence from the cotton spinning sector confirms the relevance of relative factor prices in the adoption of new technology. Within the booming cotton sector after the 1780s, high wages created strong incentives for the adoption of the labour‐saving spinning jenny.

This study provides new evidence on the advance of literacy in Spain during the period 1860-1930. A novel dataset, built with historical information (over 8,000 municipalities) from the Spanish population censuses, enables us to describe this process in detail from the end of the Ancien Régime to the Second Republic. The study thus presents stylized facts at a very low level of geographic aggregation, thereby permitting a closer examination of the main patterns. Overall, spatial differences in literacy were sizeable during the whole nineteenth century. Furthermore, these disparities were only significantly reduced between 1900 and 1930 when the growing demand for these basic skills were met by a stronger government intervention.

This article analyzes, for the first time, the evolution of regional growth and inequality over the course of thehistorical economic development process of nine countries of Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) between 1895 and 2010. In doing that, we first verify thepresence of a beta-convergence process among Latin American countries along the whole period. Nevertheless,it is also shown that convergence across countries was especially intense during the periods when differentStates implemented inward looking policies that favored regional convergence within countries. Second,we study regional sigma-convergence taking together the regions of these nine countries as unit of analysis.The study shows that regional income inequality has followed over time what appears to be an N-shapedevolution. Particularly, Latin America experienced an increase in regional inequality from the end of the XIXthcentury up to the interwar years. Nevertheless, Latin America underwent a period of regional convergencebetween the aftermath of the Second World War and the crisis of the 1970s. Finally, the crisis of the 1970s andthe changes in the international political and economic consensus in the 1980s marked the beginning of a newstage in the evolution of inequality. ; En este artículo se analiza por primera vez el crecimiento y la evolución de la desigualdad regional a lo largodel proceso de desarrollo económico de nueve países de Latinoamérica (Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia,México, Perú, Uruguay y Venezuela) entre 1895 y 2010. Para ello, en primer lugar se verifica la presenciade un proceso de β-convergencia entre los países latinoamericanos para la totalidad del periodo. No obstante,se muestra cómo este proceso fue especialmente intenso durante los periodos en los que los diferentesEstados implementaron políticas activas de desarrollo (ISI) que favorecieron la convergencia entre las regionesde un mismo país. En segundo lugar, se estudia la sigma-convergencia tomando como unidad de análisis elconjunto de regiones que componen estos nueve países. Se muestra cómo la desigualdad económica regionalha seguido una evolución en forma de N a lo largo del periodo analizado. En particular, Latinoamérica registróun incremento en la desigualdad regional desde finales del siglo xix hasta el periodo de entreguerras. Sin embargo,desde el final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial hasta la crisis de la década de 1970 se registró un notableproceso de convergencia regional. Finalmente, los cambios en el consenso político y económico internacionalen la década de 1980 marcaron el inicio de una nueva etapa de crecimiento de la desigualdad regional latinoamericana.