Development versus Structural Heterogeneity: Trajectories of Economic Growth and Income Inequalities in Latin American Countries from the 1980s

Humberto Martins

International Journal of Political Economy, 2023, vol. 52, issue 2, 213-233

Abstract: This article deals with income inequalities in Latin American countries in the last four decades, relating to economic growth and development. Founded on a structural heterogeneity approach (both its original formulation and recent advances), we adopt a concept of development as a structural process of reducing inequalities. Particularly, we discuss the role of economic policy and institutions on economic growth, income inequalities and development. Empirically, we trace the evolution of economic growth and income inequalities in selected Latin American countries from the period of dominant adoption of neoliberal policies, in the 1980s, to recent decades, when these policies have been partially contested and alternative policies have been established in some cases. In this context, particular attention was devoted to the evolution of social expenditures, identified as a key factor to influence income inequalities. According to the availability of data, we contrast income inequalities in selected Latin American countries and OECD countries by collecting the Gini Index and calculating the Palma ratio for this four-decade period. We analyze the results relating to theoretical basis and institutional elements. Thus, based on the literature review and data analyzed, we contrast trajectories during 1980s and 2000s, stressing that different oriented economic and social policies and institutions lead to different outcomes, which means that trajectories of the countries are mainly outcomes of “choices” made at the national level.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08911916.2023.2241801 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mes:ijpoec:v:52:y:2023:i:2:p:213-233

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/MIJP20

DOI: 10.1080/08911916.2023.2241801

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Political Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().