5 - Human Development in Latin America

Summary

Did augmented human development improve in Latin America since 1870, what drove it, and did the gap with the OECD widen? Chapter 5 addresses these questions. Latin America presents sustained AHD gains since the late nineteenth century, especially during the 1940s and 1950s and from 1970 onwards, the 1980s in particular. AHD advance was not restricted to phases of economic progress, i.e., the 1940–1980 phase of state-led growth, but extended to the globalisation backlash (1914–1950) and the ‘lost decade’ (1980s). Schooling, as a result of the diffusion of new ideas, nation-building, and urbanisation, and life expectancy, due to the spread of the epidemiological transition, drove AHD over the long run and accounted for catching up to the OECD until 1960, while civil and political liberties did so in the 1980s. The rise of life expectancy before drugs spread internationally since 1950 points to the diffusion of new medical knowledge that through hygienic practices and low-cost public health measures helped eradicating communicable diseases and played a major role in reducing infant and maternal mortality.