Archived Events

WAGE | Event Archive

Upcoming Events

Audio Video Archive

WAGE Partners

Join Our Mailing List

Return...

Five Centuries of Latin American Inequality

Date: October 13, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location: 206 Ingraham
Phone: 608-265-8038
Email: wage@intl-institute.wisc.edu
Sponsor: Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE) and Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program (LACIS)

Google Map

Overview:
Most analysts of the modern Latin American economy hold to a pessimistic belief in historical persistence -- they believe that Latin America has always had very high levels of inequality, suggesting it will be hard for modern social policy to create a more egalitarian society. Williamson argues that this conclusion is not supported by what little evidence we have. The persistence view is based on an historical literature which has made little or no effort to be comparative. Modern analysts see a more unequal Latin America compared with Asia and the rich post-industrial nations and then assume that this must always have been true. Indeed, some have argued that high inequality appeared very early in the post-conquest Americas, and that this fact supported rent-seeking and anti-growth institutions which help explain the disappointing growth performance we observe there even today. Professor Williamson argues to the contrary. Compared with the rest of the world, inequality was not high in pre-conquest 1491, nor was it high in the post-conquest decades following 1492. Indeed, it was not even high in the mid-19th century just prior Latin America’s belle époque. It only became high thereafter. Historical persistence in Latin American inequality is a myth.

Speaker Biography:
Jeffrey G. Williamson is the Laird Bell Professor of Economics, emeritus, Harvard University, and Honorary Fellow, Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Williamson received his PhD from Stanford University in 1961, was a member of the UW-Madison faculty 1963-1983 and the Harvard faculty 1983-2008. He is now a Madison resident. The author of about twenty five books and almost two hundred scholarly articles in economic history, international economics and economic development, Williamson has served as President of the Economic History Association (1994-1995), Chairman of the Harvard Economics Department (1997-2000), and Master of Harvard's Mather House (1986-1993). His most recent books are: Trade and Poverty Since 1750 (forthcoming); Globalization and the Poor Periphery Before 1950 (Michigan Institute of Technology, 2006); Global Migration and the World Economy (MIT, 2005, with T. Hatton); and Globalization in Historical Perspective (Chicago 2002, ed. with M. Bordo and A. Taylor). He has had visiting appointments at the Australian National University, Cambridge University, Carlos III University, University of Copenhagen, European University Institute, University of Groningen, Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Kiel Institute of World Economics, Osaka Gakuin University, University of the Philippines, Stanford University, and Stockholm School of Economics. Williamson also has had long associations with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank as a visiting research fellow and consultant.

Download Professor Williamson's paper Five Centuries of Latin American Inequality here.

A member program of the International Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
© 2009 University of Wisconsin Board of Regents | All Rights Reserved | Site Credit
Feedback, questions or accessibility issues: wage@intl-institute.wisc.edu