Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- PART ONE FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE FORMATION OF NATION-STATES
- PART TWO ENTRY INTO THE SYSTEM OF INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOUR
- PART THREE THE TRADITIONAL STRUCTURAL PATTERN
- 7 Characteristics of agrarian structures
- 8 Distribution and utilisation of the social income
- 9 Monetary and foreign exchange systems
- PART FOUR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INDUSTRIALISATION PROCESS
- PART FIVE REORIENTATION OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE RECENT PERIOD
- PART SIX INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- PART SEVEN INTRA-REGIONAL RELATIONS
- PART EIGHT STRUCTURAL RECONSTRUCTION POLICIES
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - Distribution and utilisation of the social income
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- PART ONE FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE FORMATION OF NATION-STATES
- PART TWO ENTRY INTO THE SYSTEM OF INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOUR
- PART THREE THE TRADITIONAL STRUCTURAL PATTERN
- 7 Characteristics of agrarian structures
- 8 Distribution and utilisation of the social income
- 9 Monetary and foreign exchange systems
- PART FOUR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INDUSTRIALISATION PROCESS
- PART FIVE REORIENTATION OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE RECENT PERIOD
- PART SIX INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- PART SEVEN INTRA-REGIONAL RELATIONS
- PART EIGHT STRUCTURAL RECONSTRUCTION POLICIES
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Pattern of demand in underdeveloped structures
The way in which the social product is distributed among the members of the community is doubtedly one of the most significant features of the economic structure. This aspect is particularly important in the case of underdeveloped economies. The preponderance of exogenous factors, such as the external demand for a few primary products subject to shortrun fluctuations in price, as well as the considerable disparity between the remuneration of factors of production and their opportunity costs in productive use, both in the export sector and in the sectors most affected by modern technology, tend to compartmentalise economic decisions, giving rise to demand schedules with characteristic discontinuities, each segment displaying different behaviour patterns or trends. Thus, in a given phase of expansion of the domestic product, one group of consumers may show a rapid advance in purchasing power while another remains stationary; or one group, benefiting from a rise in the real income of its members, may diversify its demand schedule through the inclusion of higher quality goods, while another grows horizontally, that is, through the addition of new members to the group without any change in the demand schedule of existing members. Traditional economic analysis blurred the perception of these problems, based as it was on assumptions of homogeneous factors and of an identical technological horizon for all decision-making agents related to production. For an understanding of the problems of underdevelopment we must start with different hypotheses.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Economic Development of Latin AmericaHistorical Background and Contemporary Problems, pp. 81 - 92Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1977