In the 1950s and 60s, in Latin America structuralism was considered as the preeminent form of analysis of economic development and growth. Nowadays, in contrast, as a mode of analysis structuralism is distinctly unfashionable, and has been superceded by newer endogenous growth theories, which...

Brazil is frequently portrayed as exhibiting persistent and structural economic inequality that is rooted in the early colonial experience, and is believed to undermine development in the long run. I construct original measures of agricultural inequality for 1905 in what is today Brazil’s...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of remittances on Latin America`s economic growth thorough 1976-2007 controlling the potential endogeneity of the regressors through system GMM estimators for dynamic data panel model. The main conclusion is that remittances had a negative and...

Railways are usually considered as one of the most important innovations that fostered the transition of Latin America to economic growth before 1914. The social saving estimates that are available for several Latin American countries seem to confirm that view. However, the interpretation of the...

This paper uses time-series data from nineteen Latin American countries and the U.S. to test for income convergence using two existing definitions of convergence and a new testable definition of β-convergence. Only Dominican Republic and Paraguay were found to pair-wise converge according to...

In the absence of substantial differences in the growth rates of per capita GDP across countries, what are the factors that explain the rapid spread of the HIV infection within a nation? This is an empirical question that needs to be explained. In order to elucidate the correlation between HIV...

Both theoretical and empirical literature has identified several channels through which FDI influence economic growth in Latin America. This study however examines the impact on economic output growth using aggregate production function augmented with FDI inflows, policy reforms and the...

The concept of club convergence has been widely used in empirical analysis to group countries in clubs with similar development paths. However, there is no unified agreement on how to identify the clubs in the first place. In this paper, I argue that economic history can guide us to identify...

The study investigates disparities in social development in 144 countries worldwide. In the paper we aim to investigate cross-country differences in social development level in year 2011, as well as to estimate inequalities on the field. Secondly, we assess relative social development level...

This paper analyses inclusive growth that focuses on the creation of opportunities for all. Inclusive growth allows people to contribute to and benefit from economic growth, while pro-poor growth approaches focusing on welfare of the poor only to reduce inequality. Recently, economics literature...