The paper proposes an interpretation of the «Argentine failure» based on development accounting and econometrical approaches frequently used in the current cross-country income differentials literature. The main results are as follows: the development process of Canada — in term of per capita GDP –– moved away from that of Argentina around 1918, but there was a structural change in the determinants of aggregate productivity around 1935 that led Argentina to take a diverging path. Recovery — thanks to improved aggregate productivity –– was not possible after 1940. The results support the idea that Argentina fell into a «staple trap», while Canada embarked on a successful path due to the adjacency and political proximity with a larger and complementary economy.

Latin America participated in the electric revolution which profoundly transformed the most developed Western economies between 1880 and 1930. The qualitative empirical evidence shows that Latin American electrification began with little delay compared to those economies. This article provides new quantitative evidence consisting of annual series about a reliable indicator of the degree of electrification of the Latin American nations. The database built shows that towards 1930 electricity consumption per inhabitant in Latin America was far below that of most advanced economies, and only Latin American leaders in the electrification process had reached power consumption levels similar to the European late comers. Unlike other newly industrializing economies, the region was not able to quickly incorporate new technology to overcome their backwardness.

This paper analyses the system of transportation and discusses the effect of geography and transport infrastructure on transport costs and economic growth in Peru during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Using primary and secondary sources, I find that geography imposed difficult transport challenges on Peruvians during this period. There were no navigable rivers in coastal and highland regions, railroads were scarce and most roads were inadequate for wagons, sometimes even for horses and mules. As a result, transport costs were extremely high, which constituted a barrier to trade, reduced gains from specialisation and retarded economic growth. Therefore, high transport costs seem to be one important factor in explaining the low income levels of Peru in the early 20th century in spite of the country's large endowments of natural resources.

This paper focuses on the analysis of weak states in the international trading system during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic crises, especially on Portugal's trade relations with the United States. We argue that the previous studies of the trade flows during these conflicts have not paid enough attention on smaller actors. Even though the Peninsular War caused severe disruption of agricultural production in Portugal, the United States, despite its strained relations with an ally of Portugal, Great Britain, became a key supplier for the Portuguese market. Clearly, the threatened position of the peninsula, and the need to supply the troops, awarded the Portuguese some room to manoeuvre in the international markets. Total war was not a constraint for all states — economic necessities trumped political and diplomatic concerns during the era of the first real-world wars. This situation was a temporary one, only to change after the conflict.

The aim of this article is to measure the advance of agricultural productivity in South Navarra between 1780 and 1900. The construction of several indices of agricultural commodities and factor prices allows us to apply the methodology of Total Factor Productivity (TFP). As distinguished from the thesis of stagnation, our estimate of the annual rate of TFP growth in the long run is close to 0.42 %. This rate was particularly high between 1817 and 1850, in a context of deflation and institutional change. During the second half of the century the cyclical evolution of the curve reveals the obstacles derived from the capital resources supply, especially fertilizers and animal traction.

This essay considers the literature on the topic of social capital in relation to the economic science, and opens new perspectives of research in this area. This essay starts with a walk through the history of economic thought that has influenced social capital literature. Afterwards, the reader will find a discussion on different perspectives of research that have been followed up to now and some others in relation with the microeconomic foundations of the concept of social capital, and its connexion with economic growth and finance.