Introduction
Consumption is related to economic growth, standards of living, income distribution, urbanization, demographic structure and the modernization of a society, among other factors. Aggregate consumption has become a main source of data about living standards as it may capture welfare levels, and it is an indicator of standards of living as it constitutes an important component in people's welfare. The types of goods consumed in a society and their variations over time yield information about standards of living and income distribution in that society. The incorporation of new goods into the consumption basket may be a result of economic progress in the sense that it may contribute to improving people's welfare, if these goods improve life quality in its different aspects – food, housing, transport, recreation – or make it possible to maintain life quality at a lower cost.
The period from the closing decades of the nineteenth century until the Great Depression, is considered the ‘golden age’ for most of the Latin American countries. The region enjoyed rapid growth based on the export of natural resources, although it remained a net importer of manufactured goods. The first globalization was characterized by decreasing transport costs and increasing trade, and the internal prices of goods converged to international levels. This period of big exports and economic growth made it possible to import consumer goods.
I work with series of durable goods for the period from 1890 until the First World War for six countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico and Uruguay.