Human Development as Positive Freedom: Latin America in Historical Perspective

Leandro Prados de la Escosura ()

No 77, Working Papers from European Historical Economics Society (EHES)

Abstract: How has Latin AmericaÕs wellbeing evolved over time? How does Latin America compare to todayÕs developed countries (OECD, for short)? What explains their differences? These questions are addressed using an historical index of human development. A sustained improvement in wellbeing can be observed since 1870. The absolute gap between OECD and Latin America widened over time, but an incomplete catching up Ðlargely explained by education- occurred since 1900, but faded away after 1980, as Latin America fell behind the OECD in terms of longevity. Once the first health transition was exhausted, the contribution of life expectancy to human development declined.

Keywords: Latin America; Human Development; Positive Freedom; Life Expectancy; Education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I00 N36 O15 O54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2015-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap and nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Human Development as Positive Freedom: Latin America in Historical Perspective (2015)
Working Paper: Human Development as Positive Freedom: Latin America in Historical Perspective (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hes:wpaper:0077

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