This paper explores the relationship between the nature of Spanish savings banks and the extent of their market success during the twentieth century. It deals with the key factors which have made such a good performance possible, including their ability to promote private saving, to cooperate with government economic policy, to adapt to changing circumstances, to operate in particular geographical areas, and to cooperate with one another. Finally, the paper deals in depth with this last factor. The competitive cooperation model is used to explain the outstanding role of the Spanish Confederation of Savings Banks in making the strategic alliance between the Spanish savings banks possible.

This paper uses the theoretical and empirical contributions of recent international literature on the determinants of long run economic growth to explain the historical origin of the enormous regional economic inequalities which characterize Colombia. The results indicate that geography and culture are not direct determinants of differences in regional per capita income. Nevertheless, geography did play a central but indirect role through its influence on settlement patterns during the colonial period. Although econometric estimations indicate that the colonial legacy influenced contemporary differences in regional income, it is not clear if this effect operates via the institutions or human capital.

Not all Europeans migrated to the United States. Between 1879 and 1930 around 13 million of Europeans went to Latin America; however, Latin America is not fully incorporated into current debates on the cost and benefits from Atlantic migration. This paper surveys Latin America's immigration from the late nineteenth century to 1930. It assesses inferences about European migrants in Latin America derived from the experience of migrants in the United States and questions its validity. The topics covered here include migration trends and chronology, national origin of the flows and the evolution of real wages. New data on the cost of passages for transatlantic migration is also presented. This is followed by an examination of the immigrants' contribution to economic growth in Latin America dealing basically with the issue of human capital brought in by European immigrants. The extent to which immigrants alter the composition of the labour force and the demographic structure, both in the short and the long run is also examined.

In this paper I use historical data to analyze the relationship between crises and growth in Latin America. I calculate by how much the region's GDP per capita has been reduced as a consequence of the recu- rrence of external crises. I also analyze the determinants of major balan- ce of payments crises. The main conclusion is that it is unlikely that Latin America will, on average, experience a major improvement in long run growth in the future. It is possible that some countries will make progress in catching up with the advanced nations. This, however, will not be the norm; most Latin American countries are likely to fall further behind in relation to the Asian countries and other emerging nations. Not everything, however, is grim. My analysis also suggests that fewer Latin America countries will be subject to the type of catastrophic crises that affected the region in the past. Latin America's future will be one of «No crises and very modest growth».

This article analyses various transformations that took place within the Spanish colonial trade before the implementation of the 1778 free trade regulations. Firstly it shows the changes in the pattern of trade caused by the adoption in 1739 of the system of register ships (single «registered» ships), which resulted in the cancellation of the traditional system of fleets. Secondly it examines the role of transatlantic mail in shaping a new, increasingly retail-oriented pattern of trade. Finally, it deals with the evolution of the flow of commercial information crossing the Atlantic, stressing the growing impact of fashion. The primary sources used are mainly letters belonging to Spanish merchants that were confiscated by the British during the eighteenth-century wars.

This essay presents recent estimates of average heights for different regions of Argentina during the period 1850–1950. This evidence, taken from registers of prisoners and military recruits, serves to question some traditional views of Argentine economic growth based on income and wage data. The essay suggests that the era of liberal progress resulted in less welfare among the lower classes than is usually assumed. A similar situation occurred during the agrarian-export growth of the first decade of the 20th century. In contrast, the period known as the «great delay» wit- nessed notable improvements in biological welfare, particularly during the 1930s. In addition, height estimates indicate that during WWII and the first Peronist administrations there was a nutritional setback in the Buenos Aires industrial belt. Data on the provincial distribution of heights for the 1920s show an important degree of regional inequality.

The frame of this work is the reception that Jovellanos' Informe de Ley Agraria (1795) known in Spain. It is specially focused on the Spanish translation of a conspicuous agronomic work by F. Rozier, a French author. The translation was induced by the Informe and was elaborated by J. Álvarez Guerra. It has been considered as a notorious achievement of the Spanish agronomic movement of the Enlightenment. Nevertheless, the translator's «Discurso Preliminar» has not already been studied. This «Discurso» included an entire summary of the economic ideas of the French Physiocracy, so it allows us to consider it as a Physiocrat alternative of the Jovellano's Informe. Two different issues are particularly involved by this research: firstly, the influence of Physiocracy in Spain was stronger than it has been recognised; secondly, free trade was consubstantial to the Spanish economic program of the Enlightenment, although always as a minority option.

In Adam's Smith theory, economic hierarchies cannot reduce market transaction costs. To demonstrate this thesis, the article studies the definition of Smithian freedom, which makes any imposition on the independent and creative activity «costly». It also explains how Adam Smith treats the topic of the provision of private and public goods in the Wealth of the Nations. Therefore, on the one hand, the nature of the firm, which supplies private goods, is described; on the other hand, it studies the provision of public goods, that is to say, in the case of Smith's theory, the institutions that ease trade in general and the ones that ease the instruction of the people.

This paper analyse the evolution of income and wealth distribution in the settler economies in order to evaluate the manner in which the historical conditions generated certain productive structure and trade pattern and, therefore, the economic dynamic in the long run.

We consider two channels to interpret the relations between the distributive pattern and the productive and trade structure: the aggregate demand and the institutional and geographic factors. The analysis focus on four proximate causes of the specialization, i.e., learning capacity, innovation and technical progress, accumulation of fixed capital and formation of human capital. We use a comparative approach to look for the main differences in the development of settler economies during the period 1870–1940.

Firstly, we present the historical context and, then, some econometric exercises are tested to give more insights to this view. The evidence shows that economies with high inequality present an economic structure characterized by production with small incorporation of knowledge and low added-value. As a result, in the long run they verify worse performances than other economies with a more equitable distributive pattern.

Using the Penn World Table, the CEPAL statistics and the OxLAD data base for the period 1950–2000, and considering a sample of 18 Latin American countries, this paper tries to test for convergence within the region. The results from a panel data approach only allow us to speak about convergence in a conditional sense. In fact, one of the main factors behind both economic growth and the catching up process in the region is the level of human capital. This variable has been constructed using Principal Components methodology and taking into consideration primary and secondary school enrolment ratios, the number of inhabitants per doctor, life expectancy, the infant mortality rate and the dependency rate.

This study presents the first results of an on-going study of longevity of large Spanish family firms. Its main objective is to provide solid data for a topic in which opinions are more abundant than scientific statistics, as well as to identify the keys to the survival and competitiveness of the almost 250 firms included in the study. It concludes that this reality is not just the result of two decades of integration in Europe or a fortunate endowment with some natural resources, but the outcome of a long learning process and the combination of two factors: specialization in market niches in which the state had no strategic interests and the creation of personal networks of cooperation and influence within and outside Spain.

Portugal, a poor and small kingdom, became a pioneering mercantile state thanks to its Discoveries. When did Portugal establish its fiscal institutions as a world power? Was such a powerful maritime nation, capable of spearheading a permanent link between Europe and India, able to establish modern fiscal institutions strong enough to guarantee a stable State budget? The objetive for this paper is to show that the country's fiscal and imperial past prevented Portuguese civil society from establishing efficient fiscal institutions and generating a social consent for increasing tax collection.

Long run economic progress in modern Spain is assessed in this paper and its performance placed in European perspective. Over one and a half centuries, income per person rose 15 times. Three main phases can be established: 1850–1950, 1951–1974 and 1975–2000. Spain underperformed in the long run mostly due to its sluggish growth in specific phases of the century prior to 1950. Catching up took place in the late twentieth century, in which the years 1959–74 stand out. Structural change contributed significantly to growth acceleration while lack of exposition to international competition represents a recurrent element of retardation.