Argentine trade policies in the XX century: 60 years of solitude

At the turn of the last century, the Argentine economy was on a path to prosperity that never fully developed. International trade and trade policies are often identified as a major culprit. In this paper, we review the history of Argentine trade policy to uncover its exceptional features and to exp...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Brambilla, María Irene, Galiani, Sebastian, Porto, Guido Gustavo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/99925
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/99925
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:ANTI-EXPORT BIAS
EXPORT TAXES ON AGRICULTURE
TARIFF PROTECTION
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.2
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5
Descripción
Sumario:At the turn of the last century, the Argentine economy was on a path to prosperity that never fully developed. International trade and trade policies are often identified as a major culprit. In this paper, we review the history of Argentine trade policy to uncover its exceptional features and to explore its contribution to the Argentine debacle. Our analysis tells a story of bad trade policies, rooted in distributional conflict and shaped by changes in constraints, that favored industry over agriculture in a country with a fundamental comparative advantage in agriculture. While the anti-export bias impeded productivity growth in agriculture, the import substitution strategy was not successful in promoting an efficient industrialization. In the end, Argentine growth never took-off.