Abstract
The focus of this chapter is centered on the process of product concentration and the evolution of regional disparities in Latin America and its relationship to countries’ economic growth. For this purpose, a group of eight countries have been taken into account: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Panama and Peru. To carry out the empirical analysis these countries offer the advantage of having uniform regional and national data that enables the comparison between them. Nevertheless, figures from Ecuador will also be considered to study some specific aspects, as regional disparities of income per capita, the concentration of population and the increasing exports of raw materials to other American, European and Asian economies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Here we take as ‘regions’ the political administrative divisions named according to the different countries: states, provinces and regions.
- 2.
The origin of many of them is located in distant historical periods, but it has been since the 1950s. and 1960s. when these facts and trends are reinforced.
- 3.
Some of them could be clearly differentiated – for example, the concentration of production and population – and even incorporate some more, but we present the most remarkable from an economic and regional perspective.
- 4.
See chapter written by J. Máttar and L. Riffo included in this book (Chap. 3)
- 5.
This index is the sum of the differences between surface and GDP ratio for country regions. The index takes values from 0 when the surface and GDP all have the same regional ratio and tends to 1 when the differences between product and area ratios of each region are higher.
- 6.
See chapters by S. Boisier and L.M. Cuervo and N. Cuervo in this book.
- 7.
The Gini coefficient expresses regional differences in GDP per capita and varies in a range between 0 (low disparity) and 1 (high disparity). Regions are defined as the first subnational administrative scale.
Gini coefficient of regional inequalities: \( \begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \frac{2}{N-1}\ast {\displaystyle \sum_{i=1}^{N-1}\left({F}_i-{Q}_i\right)}\hfill & \hfill {F}_i=\frac{i}{N}\hfill & \hfill Q=\frac{{\displaystyle \sum_{j=1}^i{y}_i}}{{\displaystyle \sum_{j=1}^N{y}_j}}\hfill \end{array} \)
yi: GDP per capita for region i N: number of regions
- 8.
A paradigmatic example is the exploitation of nitrates in Chile, Peru and Bolivia in the nineteenth century and its rapid decline after 1920 as a result of the occurrence of chemical nitrates and fertilizers
- 9.
See the chapter written by J. Máttar y L. Riffo on this volume (Chap. 3).
- 10.
Panel data from nine countries is used in the analysis (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Peru) for the 1988–2010 period. The data corresponds to an unbalanced panel, due to lack of information for all the years in the period.
- 11.
For example, the EU has rectified its regional policy towards increasing shares and benefits for prioritized regions according to a criterion: that GDP pc. is below 75 % of the Community average. The margin for grant aid to the remaining regions has been reduced, linking them with the general objectives of the Community.
- 12.
For example: in the European Union.
References
Auty RM (1993) Sustaining development in mineral economies: the resource curse thesis. Routledge, London
Barro R (2008) Inequality and growth revisited. Working papers on regional economic integration, n. 11. Office of Regional Economic Integration. Asian Development Bank
Cepal (2009) Economía y territorio en América Latina y el Caribe: desigualdades y políticas. Libros de la Cepal, Santiago, p 206, n. 99
Cepal (2010) La hora de la igualdad: brechas por cerrar, caminos por abrir. Documento del Trigésimo tercer período de Sesiones de la CEPAL. Santiago. 289 pp
Cepal (2010b) Panorama del desarrollo territorial en América Latina y el Caribe. Documento de proyecto, Santiago, p 165
Cepal (2012) Cambio estructural para la Igualdad: una versión integrada del desarrollo. Documento del Trigésimo cuarto período de Sesiones de la CEPAL, Santiago, p 330
Cuadrado-Roura JR (ed) (2010) Regional policy, economic growth and convergence. Springer, Berlin
Cuadrado-Roura JR (2012) Regional policies. What (it seems) we have learned from the European experiences. In: Cook P, Parrilli D, Curbelo JL (eds) Innovation, global change and territorial resilience. E. Elgar, Cheltenham, ch. 14
Cuervo L, González S (2010) Concentración espacial y disparidades económicas territoriales en Chile. Revista Chilena de Estudios Regionales 2(1):25–37, Temuco
De Mattos C (1986) Paradigmas, Modelos y Estrategias en la Práctica Latinoamericana de planificación regional. Pensamiento Iberoamericano Nº10, CEPAL/ICI, Madrid, España
Gatto F (2007) Crecimiento económico y desigualdades territoriales: algunos limites estructurales para lograr una mayor equidad. Documento de proyecto de la CEPAL. Crisis, Recuperación y Nuevos dilemas: la economía Argentina 2002–2007. Oficina de la Cepal en Buenos Aires
Gavin M, Hausman R (1998) Nature, development and distribution in Latin America: evidence on the role of geography, climate and natural resources. Working Paper No. 378, Washington, DC: I-A Devt. Bank
Henderson V (2000) How urban concentration affects economic growth. Policy Research Working Paper no. 2326. The World Bank, Development Research Group, Washington, D.C. United States
Higgins B, Savoie DJ (1995) Regional development theories and their application. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick
OECD (2009a) Territorial reviews: Chile. OECD, Paris
OECD (2009b) How regions grow: trends and analysis. OECD, Paris
OECD (2011) Regional outlook: building resilient regions for stronger economies. OECD, Paris
OECD (2012) Promoting growth in all regions. OECD, Paris, March
Rojas E, Cuadrado-Roura JR, Fdez-Güell JM (2008) Governing the metropolis. Principles and cases. D. Rockefeller Center, Harvard University and IADB
Sachs JD, Warner A (1995) Natural resource abundance and economic growth. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 5398, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge
Sachs JD, Warner AM (2001) The curse of natural resources. Eur Econ Review 45(4–6):827–838, Elsevier, http://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eecrev/v45y2001i4-6p827-838.html
Wheaton W, Shishido H (1981) Urban concentration, agglomeration economies, and the level of economic development. Econ Dev Cult Chang 30(1):17–30, University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Williamson J (1965) Regional inequality and the process of national development: a description of patterns. Econ Dev Cult Chang 13(2):1–84, University of Chicago Press
World Bank (2009) World development report: reshaping economic geography. Washington, DC
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cuadrado-Roura, J.R., Gonzalez-Catalán, S. (2013). Growth and Regional Disparities in Latin America Concentration Processes and Regional Policy Challenges. In: Cuadrado-Roura, J., Aroca, P. (eds) Regional Problems and Policies in Latin America. Advances in Spatial Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39674-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39674-8_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39673-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39674-8
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)