The commodity terms of trade and their strategic implications for development
José Antonio Ocampo and
María Angela Parra Additional contact information José Antonio Ocampo: UN-DESA
María Angela Parra: UN-DESA
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Mariangela Parra Lancourt ()
Abstract:
Although the empirical literature is not unanimous about the existence of a continuous long-term deterioration in the terms of trade for commodities (the original and most common formulation of the Prebisch- Singer hypothesis) and, hence, about the possibility of inferring their future behaviour on this basis, there is a consensus as to the sharp drop in the barter terms of trade, especially from the 1920s on. This paper presents a critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature on the subject and the implications for development strategies.