Has Latin America Always Been Unequal?
A Comparative Study of Asset and Income Inequality in the Long Twentieth Century
By
Ewout Frankema
BRILL
LEIDEN . BOSTON 2009
CONTENTS
List of Tables xi List of Figures xiii List of Tables and Figures in Appendix xv Acknowledgements xvii Chapter One Introduction 1 1.1 Latin America: A History of Persistent Inequality? 1 1.2 The Long Twentieth Century , 5 1.3 'Latin' Inequality Characteristics 8 1.4 An Integrative Approach 10 1.5 Outline 14
PART ONE
Chapter Two The Institutionalisation of Inequality in
Colonial Latin America 21 2.1 Introduction 21 2.2 The Core and the Periphery 21 2.3 Mercantilism and Resource Extraction 27 2.4 The Institutionalisation of Inequality 30 2.5 The Disintegration of the Colonial Empire in the
19th Century 37 2.6 Conclusion 40 Chapter Three The Omnipresence of Land Inequality in
Post-Colonial Latin America 43 3.1 Introduction 43 3.2 Perspectives on the Colonial Roots of Latin American
Land Inequality 44 3.3 Global and Regional Variation in Levels of Land
Inequality 49 3.4 A Multivariate Regression Analysis of Land Inequality 56 3.5 Land Market Institutions in Three British Colonies:
Malaysia, Sierra Leone and Zambia 60
Vlll CONTENTS
3.6 The Colonial Roots of Latin American Land Inequality in Comparative Perspective 75 3.7 Conclusion 80 Chapter Four The Advance of Mass Education: Quantity or
Quality? 85 4.1 Introduction 85 4.2 From Land Inequality to Educational Inequality 87 4.3 The Comparative Development of Primary School
Enrolment Rates, 1870-2000 90 4.4 Educational Inequality in Latin America: Different
Concepts, Different Views 97 4.5 A Grade Enrolment Distribution Approach, 1960-2005 101 4.6 Conclusion 113
PART TWO
Chapter Five The Secular Trend of Income Inequality,
1870-2000: Theoretical and Historical Perspectives 119 5.1 Introduction 119 5.2 The Distributive Consequences of Globalisation and
De-Globalisation 120 5.3 The Distributive Consequences of Factor Biased Structural
and Technological Change 127 5.4 Institutional Change and Distributional Change:
a Collective Action Perspective '. 134 5.5 Conclusion 145 Chapter Six Changing Patterns of Factor Income Distribution,
1870-2000 147 6.1 Introduction 147 6.2 Decomposing National Income into Factor Income Shares 149 6.3 Population Growth, Rural-Urban Migration and Urban
Informal Sector Expansion 151 6.4 Relative Wage Shares in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico,
1870-2000 158 6.5 The Evolution of Labour-Capital Income Shares in the
Long Twentieth Century 166 6.6 Conclusion 173
CONTENTS IX
Chapter Seven The Recent Rise of Urban Wage
Inequality 177 7.1 Introduction 177 7.2 Labour Market Institutions and Wage Inequality in Early
20th Century Argentina 178 7.3 Long Run Trends in Manufacturing Wage Inequality .... 183 7.4 Explaining the Recent Rise in Urban Wage and
Productivity Differentials 194 7.5 Conclusion 202 Chapter Eight Conclusion 205 8.1 Has Latin America Always Been Unequal? 205 8.2 Future Perspectives 210 Appendix 213 References , 265 Index 279
