Conflicting Claims and Taxation: A Distributive History of 20th Century Peru

César Castillo-García
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César Castillo-García: Wesleyan University

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Abstract: This paper examines the distributive history of the Peruvian economy throughout the 20th century, employing both quantitative and qualitative methods. It highlights how profitability and accumulation are shaped by structural processes and political institutions. The study reconstructs long-term factor income shares and introduces macroeconomic aggregates using the Distributional National Accounts (DINA) methodology for Peru since 1942. The findings reveal that Peru has established one of the most regressive tax systems globally, characterized by low top marginal rates on inheritance and income. Additionally, the paper demonstrates that periods of profitability recovery are closely aligned with neoliberal policy actions and the influence of business associations, identifying these as phases of neoliberalization. The study also shows that, since the 1990s, both the wage-productivity gap and the exploitation rate in Peru have significantly widened. 1 Studies by de Rosa, Flores, and Morgan (2022), as well as Alvaredo, de Rosa, Flores, and Morgan (2022), have developed DINA series for several Latin American countries, focusing on the distribution of growth during the commodities boom of the 2000s. Earlier efforts produced time series on top income shares, balance sheets, and wealth micro-data in country-specific studies (Alvaredo 2010;

Date: 2026-03
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