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El artículo presenta noticias que tratan de la economía latinoamericana. Se informa sobre una comisión colombo-ecuatoriana que estudia las posibilidades de integración de las zonas fronterizas de ambos países. Se anuncia que Chile es uno de los grandes exportadores de papel. Se habla de un remanente de 300.000 toneladas de trigo que tiene Uruguay para exportación.

In papers previously published in this journal J. M. Stycos and D. M. Heer have shown that fertility is lower in the economically underdeveloped Indian-speaking parts of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia than in the more prosperous Spanish-speaking parts. Stycos concluded that the reason for the fertility difference in Peru is the greater marital instability of the Indian speakers which decreased their total exposure to the risk of conception. Heer suggested instead that the causes of the difference may be voluntary. The present paper questions Heer's analysis, and offers the explanation that the difference may be attributed to the physiological effects of altitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Economists are often puzzled by the fact that impoverished tenants in poor countries are frequently crowded on to inadequate holdings, while much immediately available land remains unused. This paper sets out to explain this phenomenon in terms of the monopoly or oligopoly power of the landlord class. Individual landowners with this power will find it in their interest to rent out land only up to the point at which its annual marginal value product equals the annual outlay involved in bringing it into use. The latter can be expressed as the yearly interest payments on the original investment (clearing, levelling, and draining charges etc.) plus some annual maintenance costs. More terrain may be cultivated if the monopoly power of landlord can be broken. This would mean that land would be employed up to a level at which the value of its marginal product, as opposed to its marginal value product, equalled the annual cost of bringing it into use. In addition, the VMP and MVP curves on a particular landlord's holdings would be rendered more rent-elastic if their produce could be sold in wider national and international markets. This too would bring more land under the plough. Sharp price declines associated with increased production in isolated areas may be an important reason why monopolistic landowners keep much of their land unused. The author admits that this is but one among a number of alternative explanations, but he asks that it be given equal consideration with the others. Statistical data pertaining to the South American republic of Ecuador are used in support of the argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A broad outline of man-land relations in Ecuador is presented in this paper. This analysis is based upon the personal observations of the author during the period spent in Ecuador as a Fulbright Scholar and also upon published reports, particularly the agricultural census of Ecuador for 1954. The system of minifundia and latifundia introduced at the time of the Spanish conquest is still found on the contemporary scene. Land utilization is affected by size of holdings, and there is a direct relationship between size of holding and the percentage of land employed for pastures and an inverse relationship between size of holdings and the proportion of land given over to cultivation. Large landholdings are used less efficiently than small ones. While there are six land tenure categories in rural Ecuador, three quarters or more of the rural-farm population can best be classified as agricultural laborers. In the highlands, the general characteristic of the systems employed for the remuneration of agricultural labor is that the landowner does not need to pay his laborers cash wages, recompensing them instead by the use of land. Rudimentary plow culture and fire agriculture are the systems of agriculture upon which most reliance is placed for the cultivation of the soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the history of agrarian reform in Ecuador and the reasons for the poor record of traditional government agrarian reform programs. It also discusses an alternative agrarian reform mechanism recently adopted in Ecuador, namely, the guaranteeing of private land-sale transactions accompanied by a program of supervised agricultural credit. While it appears that such a program is not universally applicable even within Ecuador, there is reason to believe that it might be feasible in several other Latin American countries. Proponents of revolutionary agrarian reform measures have argued that such a program is antirevolutionary, that it retards a meaningful redistribution of wealth; but we shall argue that it may have precisely the opposite effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does increased media exposure lead to greater political knowledge? If so, what kinds of knowledge are affected, and by which media? The authors explore these questions through interviews with a sample of adults in Quito, Ecuador. They consider as well the effects of media credibility and of preferred communications patterns within the family in mediating the relationships observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comparative account of structure, physiognomy and floristic of montane and lowland rain forest in Ecuador. It mentions that there is a cooler, wetter season at both montane and lowland rainforest in Ecuador lasting approximately from April to July. It discusses the factors that control the distribution of the Lowland, Lower Montane and Upper Montane rain forest formation-types on tropical mountains and the effects of the Massenerhebung. It implies that the greater profusion of epiphytes in the montane than in the lowland rain forest is connected to the more frequent wetting with liquid water coming from fog rather than to a constantly higher humidity.

The article describes the structure, physiognomy and floristics of montane and lowland rain forest in Ecuador. Information about the temperature, relative humidity and light conditions in the forests is presented. The area visited for the study lies at the extreme west of the Oriente province of Ecuador, a province which stretches from the top of the eastern cordillera of the Andes to the frontiers with Peru and Colombia, well down into the Amazon basin, according to the authors. The authors summarize the geology and soils of the eastern Andes and their foothills in Ecuador.

The performance of farms and farm families in agricultural cooperatives in three fairly recently colonized areas of coastal Ecuador is examined in order to evaluate the effectiveness of planning for agricultural development. The most newly settled area has received little outside assistance. The other two have been affected by a major development program, but in varying degree because of differences in accessibility, Investments in physical and social infrastructure have not greatly improved farm performance. Gross productivity per hectare and per work day are lower in the ‘most developed’ area than in the ‘least developed, ’ and the former also uses much poorly paid peon labor The normal family lot size should be much smaller than the current tiff y hectares for more intensive land use, greater social equality, and more efficient provision of social service. Adequate family incomes could still be obtained with the use of simple, inexpensive, and familiar land management techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delves into the Santa Elena Peninsula in Ecuador. Description of the peninsula; Discussion of the physiography and structure of the peninsula; Analysis of the climate and vegetation in the area.

This article presents information on the salt shortage in Ecuador, during the latter part of 1926. For many years salt has been a government monopoly in Ecuador. The only salt deposits of importance in the country are near Salinas, on the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles from Guayaquil, Ecuador. All salt produced must be sold to the government, which in turn sells it to dealers who retail it to the public. About the middle of 1926 a heavy storm flooded and temporarily put out of commission many of the local salt deposits, and in September and October there followed a serious shortage of salt that in some parts of the country reached the point of a salt famine, which was not relieved until December, 1926. The most serious trouble occurred in Cuenca, the third largest city in the republic, located in the southern part of the country, where for a time it was impossible to secure salt at any price. The salt crisis was so serious that the government sent a battalion of troops to work the deposits near Salinas: and at least once the problem was taken up in Cabinet meeting. Even in Guayaquil, which is the principal seaport of the country and close to the salt deposits.