Abstract
In the last third of the nineteenth century, a large majority of Latin American countries adopted export-led models of growth, mostly based on agricultural exports. In some countries, this strategy produced significant results in terms of economic development but in most of the countries, the strategy was not successful, either because of too slow growth in exports or because linkages with the rest of the economy were very weak and there was no significant growth-spreading effect. After WWII, Latin America turned to a new model of economic development: the import substitution industrialisation (ISI). The ISI policies penalised export-led agriculture. The 1980s and 1990s were characterised by an expansion of adjustment policies and structural reforms. The new strategy consisted of mobilising resources in competitive export sectors, including agriculture. Chapter 13 analyses Latin America’s inability to get the maximum benefit from the changes that have occurred over this period.
This study has received financial support from Spain’s Ministry of Science and Innovation, project ECO2015-65582-P and from the Government of Aragon, through the Research Group “Agri-food Economic History (nineteenth and twentieth Centuries)”. The authors wish to thank Bernardo Mueller, Charles Mueller and participants at the Meeting “Agricultural development in the world periphery. A global economic history approach” (University of Zaragoza, April 2017) for their help and advice. The usual disclaimers apply.
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Martín-Retortillo, M., Pinilla, V., Velazco, J., Willebald, H. (2018). The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs? Agricultural Development in Latin America in the 20th Century. In: Pinilla, V., Willebald, H. (eds) Agricultural Development in the World Periphery. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66020-2_13
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