Search

Past economic development efforts have over-emphasized production problems and neglected marketing problems. The thesis of this article is that marketing "barriers" exist which impede economic growth in developing Latin American societies. The author describes a systems approach for inducing national market development and facilitating economic progress through selective reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent studies have described in some detail the factors limiting development in major countries.[3] Each shows the external sector to have been a critical element in explaining past difficulties and in determining future prospects. In addition, each points to a number of internal limitations and gives some analysis of the interaction between the two sets of factors. The present paper will utilize some of the insights from these studies to develop an aggregative model that brings out the relations between the internal and external factors in economic development. The model will be used for three purposes: (1) to interpret recent development performance, (2) to indicate in quantitative terms some of the requirements of accelerated growth, and (3) to provide a framework for the discussion of alternatives facing the United States and the Latin American countries. One section of the paper is devoted to each of these topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses social change in Latin America and its implications. Between 1900 and 1925 population increase in both Northern and Latin America was approximately 50 per cent. In the next quarter century Northern America's population grew by 33 per cent but that of Latin America by 65 per cent. Birth rates fluctuate between 35 and 50 per thousand population in most countries. The average fertility ratio in 1950 was 68.8 children under five for every hundred women of child-bearing age. A good indication of the long-term decline in mortality in Latin America is the fact that death rates, as registered, continue to go down. The implications for education, as well as for balance between working and non-working population, are evident. In regard to urbanization, historical factors should be taken into account. Except in Brazil and Colombia, the largest city outstrips the combined population of all other cities with 100,000 or more people. In parts of Colombia, for instance, political strife and unrest has caused people to migrate to cities. Industrialization requires an increasing labor force, which is for the most part recruited from the rural population. There is little or no surplus for the large savings needed in widescale development. Education, a key factor in economic development, is also affected. The large proportions in the young population may well be a factor in the lack of stability evident in certain areas of Latin America.

The paper demonstrates that reliable and valid indexes of housing quality can be developed from data collected by standard field procedures through the use of standard scaling techniques. The specific data used to illustrate the applicability of the technique were obtained in Puerto Rico and therefore are most applicable to the developing countries and specifically to Latin America. They, thus might not be directly usable for measuring housing quality outside these areas, though, out scales could readily be used to measure quality in neighbourhoods at the lower end of the scale in the U.S. The indexes tested are most readily usable and understandable when applied to single-family dwellings. An exception is the Interior Index because the interior items apply uniformly to individual dwellings even in a high-rise buildings. The technique is a reliable and valid means of developing an index of housing quality which is independent of other considerations such as characteristics of tile residents or of the neighborhood.

The purpose of the present paper is to examine the growth of Gross Domestic Product in five Latin American countries (LAC), Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico in the period 1940-1964 in terms of hypotheses about possible explanations of the residual source of growth in these countries. The development and appraisal of various hypotheses considered is based on a comparison of the rate of growth of productivity among the several Latin American countries and a comparison between these countries and a group of more economically advanced countries. For LAC, it is convincing that the underutilization is not due to inadequate demand. It is therefore more fruitful to assume that the ability to exploit capacity is an important factor in potential output and that changing utilization is a key variable explaining productivity in LAC. Also evidence has been presented which leads to the conclusion that changes in the rate of growth of productivity in LAC could, in periods after 1945, be accounted for largely by the ability of LAC to utilize all its available resources.

The article focuses on differences in economic development between the United States and Latin America. The ownership of a landed estate in colonial Latin America was a source of wealth and was a mark of social distinction. From the ranks of the landed families came many of the leading civilian officials, the high army officers, and prominent church authorities. It was the landed aristocracy that comprised the top layer of the social structure in colonial Latin America. In Latin America, a strong impulse was given to the commercialization of economic life. In the United States, the system of small landholdings which took hold during the colonial period was continued and extended after independence through the disposal of public domain by the federal government. The wide distribution of land ownership in the United States epitomizes the dominant middle-class character of American social organization. The broad middle-class market in this country was a potent force in the development of mass production methods in manufacturing. Social system of the United States attracted immigrants, adding their manpower and skills to the productive capacity of the country. No country in Latin America has had such a fine combination of physical resources and conditions to work with as the United States.

The article discusses on the essentials to be considered in the organization of scientific and technological research in developing countries such as the Latin Americas. It is important for the organization of scientific research to deal with the country's political problems, economy and education. Proper planning and unified interaction of scientific and economic development takes place importantly on the teaching of basic sciences at the university level. The implementation of applied research in universities should prioritize the needs of the national industry and the country's natural resources for the development of the technology.

There is a widely accepted theory that the growth of a middle class is essential to the development of a low‐income nation. Geithman considers what the effect of an expanding middle class will have on Latin American economic development. It that area the middle class is not exclusively associated with industrial development, but is scattered among professionals, service industries and to a great extent in government service. The Middle class is conventionally seen as a force for change, but it may be a force for preserving the status quo when the middle class adopt the values of their country's “traditional oligarchy”. In Latin America, for instance, a secondary education carries with it a disdain for any manual work and it tends to separate the middle class from the workers. The governments controlled by the oligarchy and the middle class support and institute programs of economic development which will not threaten the status quo. In the Western world, “accelerating economic development was a precondition as much as a consequence of middle class growth.” This is not the case in Latin America and the conventional concept of middle class growth being a stimulant for economic development may or may not be valid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the new form of corporatism applied by Latin American leaders to bring about economic development in their countries and emulate the social and economic models of the U.S. It explores how progress-oriented Latin Americans have looked upon classical liberalism and the bourgeois, individualistic, profit ethic to succeed in developing a mania for economic progress.

This article discusses the relation of American financial intercourse with nations dependent on foreign capital for their economic development. Foreign investments, without shame or hypocrisy, were debt has been reorganized under the guidance of a committee of international bankers in which American bankers took a leading part. The method of dollar diplomacy was to be direct and decisive. Constructive diplomacy, on the other hand, discards force and substitutes for the exercise of coercive measures to protect ill-advised adventures, supervision over the terms and conditions of investments before they are made. It is no less pragmatic. For the first time in its long history of reorganizations, the Mexican debt has been reorganized under the guidance of a committee of international bankers in which American bankers took a leading part. This growth of the financial relations between Latin-American republics and the United States is, perhaps, the most potential result of the post-war financial status of these countries. If this can be accom- plished, it is quite conceivable that commercial gains with Latin America will amply compensate any concession made by this country from choice or necessity in the adjustment of the interallied debt.

Assesses the effects of the labour legislation on the development process of Latin America. Aims of the earliest labour provisions of the region; Information on the two trends that result from the region's development policy; Details on the region's labour legislation.

Despite the high rate of unemployment in Latin America, policy makers and government advisors seem to have failed to design conscious employment policies aimed at attacking directly the unemployment problem. They appear to have ignored the various problems that unemployment raises and the considerable advantages that can be gained from rapid growth in the rate of employment. The economic, social, and political problems that unemployment raises arc well known. The advantages of a faster growth rate in employment are those related to the economies of scale, investment, and technical progress. Thus, an economy with rapid growth in the rate of employment will usually achieve a higher rate of growth of output, and this may enable the economy to benefit more from the economies of scale. In addition, it is possible that a faster rate of growth in employment may enable the economy to achieve a given rate of growth of output with less gross investment. Moreover, a higher rate of growth in employment may enable the economy to learn faster and thus have a more rapid rate of suitable technical progress.

Examines the development policies of the Latin American countries to see if they lead towards the fulfillment of its objective or if they are leading towards grater foreign dependence. Internal socio-political changes and their significance; Mechanism of economic dependence; Nature of national development; Role of Latin American integration.

Focuses on the Andean Subregional Integration Agreement, the basic agreement for the subregional integration in Latin America. Objectives of the Andean Common Market; Free trade in Latin America; Venezuela's relationship with the Andean Common Market.

Focuses on studies of the prospects for development within an economically unifying Latin America and the official discussions. The need for special provision for industrial development in the less developed member countries including Ecuador; Background of the studies.

Using 69 new life tables recently made by Arriaga for Latin American countries by stable-population methods, the authors examine the mortality trends for more countries and more periods of history than have previously been available for analysis. For the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the new tables yield a substantially lower life-expectancy than that shown by previously published life tables; for recent decades the difference is smaller, though in the same direction. As a consequence, the new tables show a speed of mortality decline in Latin America greater than the speed hitherto assumed. When the trend is analyzed in terms of economic development, it appears that the decline was extremely slow in the more backward Latin American countries until around 1930, whereas in the more advanced countries of the region, a more rapid decline had set in before that. After 1930, however, in both groups of countries the pace of decline was faster than ever, and it was virtually the same for both groups, suggesting that after that date public health measures were exerting a strong influence independently of local economic development. This result is confirmed by comparison with the past history of now developed countries; the mortality decline in Latin America after 1930 was much faster than it was historically at the same level in the industrial countries. As compared with other underdeveloped countries today, the unprecedented decline of mortality in Latin America is typical. In most underdeveloped countries, whether in Latin America or elsewhere, mortality change seems increasingly independent of economic improvement and more dependent on the importation of preventive medicine and public health from the industrial countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposal to establish, in Latin America, a teaching and research institute for the exchange of information among monetary authorities was first put forward by the Bank of Mexico during the Second Meeting of Central Bank Technicians of the American Continent in Santiago, Chile, in December 1949. The meeting adopted the proposal and designated an Ad-hoc Committee of outstanding economists from five countries to prepare the basis for the establishment of the center. The committee's recommendations were discussed at the Third Meeting of Central Bank Technicians and a basic statute and a statement of the general purposes of Centro De Estudios Monetarios Latinoamericanos were approved. Its main objectives were to promote a better understanding of monetary and banking matters in Latin America, as well as of the pertinent aspects of fiscal policy and their relationship to conclusions and principles which could be utilized in the formulation of practical measures by the monetary authorities to achieve a balanced economic development in those countries.

Estimates of the rate of return to schooling, by level, have now been made for four Latin American countries: Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. The article presents a summary of the author's own results for Mexico and compares these results with the rates derived for the other three economies. The comparisons show that, although patterns of rates vary, Mexico and Venezuela--which experienced rapid economic growth in the 10-year period preceding the estimates--appear to have higher rates of return to primary and university students than do Chile and Colombia. A stronger but more tentative hypothesis is that there is a positive correlation between rates of growth and rates of return to both primary and university schooling. This may imply that in rapid growth situations it is these two levels that require the largest increases in investment. The comparison also brings out two other interesting points: (1) rapid investment in education is not a sufficient condition for economic growth; and (2) the average rate of return to schooling seems to be generally higher than the rate of return to physical capital, but the two rates are positively correlated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]