This research note presents a new dataset of comparable and consistently defined series on wage inequality in manufacturing in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela (LA6) from 1920 to 2011. There are also series of unskilled labor with a wider sectoral coverage. This resource provides sufficient data to inform us about trajectories and turning points across distinct developmental epochs. Overall, the evidence shows a steady rise in inter-industry wage inequality since c.1960 in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico and later in the rest. Additionally, a decline in white-collar premiums across the LA6 during state-led industrialization, followed by rising trends in the decades of export-led growth, and a reversal in the 2010s. Similar contrasting trends are observed in the wage dispersion of unskilled labor.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chile enacted three exceptional laws allowing withdrawals from affiliates’ pension accounts. We analyze how these withdrawals affected pension savings and the projected retirement income of affiliates and their households, finding that lower-income households withdrew a higher percentage of their savings. Simulations of worker contributions until retirement show an average reduction of 21% in contributory pensions, but increased non-contributory pension benefits reduce the average total income loss to 8%. Under a no-reform scenario, these withdrawals and higher non-contributory pensions may imply fiscal costs around 15.8% of the pre-pandemic gross domestic product (GDP). The current pension reform should reduce it to 12.4% of pre-pandemic GDP.

El objetivo de este artículo es aplicar diferentes metodologías para medir la pobreza absoluta de ingresos en sectores urbanos en Chile entre 1940 y 1992. La perspectiva metodológica combina el food share method de la CEPAL, las mediciones Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) y la propuesta de Prados de la Escosura. La investigación muestra que: 1) el modelo ISI inicialmente reduce la pobreza, pero se estanca al finalizar la Segunda Guerra Mundial; 2) en los años cincuenta, la crisis opaca los avances de la década anterior; 3) entre 1964 y 1971, la pobreza se reduce drásticamente; 4) durante el gobierno militar (1973-1990), tras superar la crisis inflacionaria de los setenta, la pobreza vuelve a niveles históricos presentes desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial y luego desciende gradualmente desde 1983.

This paper assesses Brazil's real convergence (1822–2019) through unit root tests and Markov Regime-Switching (MS) models in three different scenarios: towards (i) other six Latin American countries (LA6); (ii) Portugal; and (iii) the technological frontier country, the US. The extended unit root test results favour Brazil's very long-run real convergence towards LA6 and Portugal, but not the US. The estimated MS models, involving two different regimes, real convergence and real non-convergence/divergence, capture institutional quality's positive effect in promoting Brazil's real convergence.

This research note documents the revision of a dataset of real wages in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela during 1920-2011. This resource was originally published by this journal in Astorga (2017). The revision affected all eighteen basic wage series plus six weighted-average series, with varying degrees of modification. The revised dataset is made available as supplementary material. Regardless of changes to the data, the key findings and conclusions of the 2017 paper still hold.

This article analyzes the effect of international migration on the wage gap between women and men who remain in Mexico. We use historical distance to the U.S. border over early twentieth-century railroad networks as an exogenous factor causing changes in the relative supply of men and women, due to predominately male migration. A 10% decrease in the relative labor supply of men tends to increase the wage gap between women and men by approximately 1.1 percentage points, suggesting that they are not perfect substitutes. However, the results imply a greater elasticity of substitution between men and women than that suggested by previous studies.

Finding the ways that work to deliver the innovation needed should be given parity of esteem with getting the prices right as a focus of the economics profession and policy systems. Learn from experience as regards carbon pricing and carbon-reducing innovation; insights from the latter coming mainly from the US, China and Europe; demographically relatively small countries – Denmark (wind) and Australia (solar PV) – can make outsize contributions. A carbon price ceiling is too low to drive innovation; generating carbon-reducing innovation requires that it be explicitly recognized as a priority, and nurtured accordingly: identify the priority area(s) where innovation at scale will be necessary to make progress; baseline the elements of the innovation ecosystem which are already in place, and the gaps that need to be filled. Key elements include institutions and incentives that promote innovation, a research and enterprise community that make it happen, and a supportive public.

This paper studies the evolution of the Chilean economy in the late 19th and early 20th century, a period when the country's convergence with developed countries came to an end. We analyse this problem in the context of the modern literature on the middle-income trap. The social, political and economic history of Chile between 1875 and 1939 is examined and the presence of most of the factors associated with the middle-income trap is found. We complement this narrative through a quantitative analysis based on the synthetic control method and argue that the process of state-led industrialisation undertaken in the country leading to the formation of CORFO was a key economic and political event. Our work presents some general lessons for developing countries facing a similar context.

The settlement and expansion of the Portuguese colonies in South America were made possible by slave labour; however, the historical size of enslaved Native and African groups is largely unknown. This investigation compiles extant statistics on the population of «Brazil» by race and state for the pre-census period from 1545 to 1850, complementing them with headcount estimates based on sugar, gold, and coffee production; pre-contact indigenous populations; and trans-Atlantic slave voyages. The resulting panel of demographic data illustrates national and regional racial transitions encompassing the colonial era. Brazil's population was of Native descent but became predominantly African in the 18th century; people of European ancestry remained a minority for another 200 years.

This paper presents the course taken by the Cuban economy from the early twentieth century until the outbreak of the Revolution, seen from the perspective of what happened in the stock market. I have therefore prepared an index of Havana Stock Exchange listings which shows strong dependence on what happened in the sugar market, particularly in sugar exports. However, my research highlights the weakness of this institution, conceived more as an instrument of speculative enrichment rather than one of financing, the evolution of which reveals the fragility of the Cuban economy and particularly the poor development of its capital markets.

This paper studies the process of economic development in Venezuela from a regional perspective. Oil wealth has given the country a unique opportunity to expand its productive capacity and improve the living standards. However, the country has experienced a drastic deterioration of its economy and institutions in recent times. The paper begins with a comparison based on welfare indicators. Then, it explores the economic implications of commodities and establishes parallels with the export booms of copper and nitrate in Chile and rubber in the Amazon region. Next, it analyses the impact of the Great Depression and the industrialisation strategy. Finally, a set of conclusions is presented.