Colombian economic development since the early 20th century

José Antonio Ocampo and Carmen Astrid Romero

Chapter 16 in The Elgar Companion to the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2025, pp 336-361 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter analyses Colombia's economic growth performance since the early 20th century, the evolution of the public policies that have contributed to this, and its main effects on social development and regional inequalities. Economic performance is divided into three periods: 1905–1929, 1930–1980, and 1981–2023. The first was characterized by the expansion of coffee production, an infrastructure investment boom, and the beginning of oil extraction. The second saw the consolidation of industrial development and the diversification of agricultural production and exports. The last was characterized by increased State provision of social services, administrative decentralization, and liberalization of foreign trade and the financial system, a combination whose economic results were deindustrialization, export reprimarization (with oil as the main product), and increased macroeconomic volatility, associated in part with the volatility of private capital flows. In terms of social development, it has experienced a long-term decline in poverty but increased income inequality, which was particularly sharp in the 1950s and 1960s. In terms of regional inequalities, there was a weak convergence of regional per capita incomes in 1925-1965, a stabilization in 1965-1990, and a relative divergence since 1990.

Keywords: Colombia; Economic history; Commodity dependence; Industrial development; Social development; Regional inequalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035317196
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