Human Development as Positive Freedom: Latin America in Historical Perspective

Arbeitspapier

How has Latin America's wellbeing evolved over time? How does Latin America compare to today's developed countries (OECD, for short)? What explains their differences? These questions are addressed using an historical index of human development. A sustained improvement in wellbeing can be observed since 1870. The absolute gap between OECD and Latin America widened over time, but an incomplete catching up -largely explained by education- occurred since 1900, but faded away after 1980, as Latin America fell behind the OECD in terms of longevity. Once the first health transition was exhausted, the contribution of life expectancy to human development declined.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: EHES Working Papers in Economic History ; No. 77

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration ; Economywide Country Studies: Latin America; Caribbean ; Health, Education, and Welfare: General ; Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Latin America; Caribbean
• Subject: Latin America ; Human Development ; Positive Freedom ; Life Expectancy ; Education

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Prados de la Escosura, Leandro
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): European Historical Economics Society (EHES)
• (where): s.l.
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/247008
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET