Rich, but not so modern: Argentina Before the Depression
Keywords:
Argentina's Economy, Great Depression, per capita income, level of development, 1870-1930Abstract
I address in this paper several exceptions of Argentina's pre-Depression experience. First: its level of development, as captured by dimensions other than GDP per capita, was not as high as its rank in per capita income, consistently #11 or better, held during 1905-1930. Second, its record growth in 1870-1914 was, to some extent, a one-shot affair: the appearance of a new transportation technology (railways) allowed the incorporation of previously unused agricultural lands and lands that were previously dedicated to low productivity ranching. Third, given the limits on natural resources and its dilution through massive migration, subsequent growth depended on physical and human capital accumulation, two dimensions in which Argentina departed somewhat from the rich countries of the day. The experience of the 1920s suggests that a change towards a more capital intensive economic structure was beginning to take place, but was cut short by the Depression.
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