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Inequality and Poverty under Latin America's New Left Regimes

Author

Listed:
  • Darryl McLeod

    (Department of Economics, Fordham University)

  • Nora Lustig

    (Department of Economics, Tulane University)

Abstract

Inequality and poverty fell sharply in many Latin American countries during a decade in which voters in ten countries chose left-leaning leaders. Are these developments related? Using data for 18 Latin American countries, this paper presents econometric evidence that social democratic regimes in Brazil and Chile were more successful at reducing inequality and poverty than the so-called populist regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, and Venezuela. Both groups implemented policies to redistribute income, but the social democratic regimes' efforts were more effective. Argentina and Venezuela started the 1990-2008 sample window with lower levels of inequality, so to some extent recent reductions in inequality are a return to "normal" levels (as estimated by fixed effects). Conversely, inequality and poverty in Brazil and Chile fell to historic lows. Second, overall terms of trade shocks were more favorable to Argentina and Venezuela, so part of the drop in inequality can be attributed to commodity price booms.

Suggested Citation

  • Darryl McLeod & Nora Lustig, 2011. "Inequality and Poverty under Latin America's New Left Regimes," Working Papers 1117, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:tul:wpaper:1117
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Leonardo Gasparini & Guillero Cruces & Leopoldo Tornarolli, 2011. "Recent Trends In Income Inequality In Latin America," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Spring 20), pages 147-201, January.
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    8. Collier, Paul & Goderis, Benedikt, 2008. "Commodity Prices, Growth, and the Natural Resource Curse: Reconciling a Conundrum," MPRA Paper 17315, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Giovanni Andrea Cornia, 2010. "Income Distribution under Latin America's New Left Regimes," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 85-114.
    10. Helwege, Ann & Birch, Melissa B.L., 2007. "Declining Poverty in Latin America? A Critical Analysis of New Estimates by International Institutions," Working Papers 37279, Tufts University, Global Development and Environment Institute.
    11. Maxim Pinkovskiy & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2009. "Parametric Estimations of the World Distribution of Income," NBER Working Papers 15433, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Lustig, N. & Mcleod, D., 1996. "Minimum Wages and Poverty in Developing Countries : Some Empirical Evidence," Papers 125, Brookings Institution - Working Papers.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Inequality and Poverty under Latin America’s New Left Regimes
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2011-02-21 18:20:36

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    Cited by:

    1. Seguino, Stephanie & Braunstein, Elissa, 2012. "The impact of economic policy and structural change on gender employment inequality in Latin America, 1990-2010," MPRA Paper 43261, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Leonardo Gasparini, 2019. "La Desigualdad en su Laberinto: Hechos y Perspectivas sobre Desigualdad de Ingresos en América Latina," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0256, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    3. Carlos Felipe Balcázar, 2016. "Long-run effects of democracy on income inequality in Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(3), pages 289-307, September.
    4. Gibrán Cruz-Martínez, 2017. "Welfare State Development, Individual Deprivations and Income Inequality: A Cross-Country Analysis in Latin America and the Caribbean," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 955-979, December.
    5. Azevedo, Joao Pedro & Davalos, Maria Eugenia & Diaz-Bonilla, Carolina & Atuesta, Bernardo & Castaneda, Raul Andres, 2013. "Fifteen years of inequality in Latin America : how have labor markets helped ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6384, The World Bank.
    6. Verónica AMARANTE & Rodrigo ARIM, 2023. "Inequality and informality revisited: The Latin American case," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 162(3), pages 431-457, September.
    7. Verónica Amarante & Martín Brun & Cecilia Rossel, 2020. "Poverty and inequality in Latin America’s research agenda: A bibliometric review," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 38(4), pages 465-482, July.
    8. Nancy Birdsall & Nora Lustig & Darryl McLeod, 2011. "Declining Inequality in Latin America: Some Economics, Some Politics," Working Papers 1120, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    9. Daniel L. Hicks & Beatriz Maldonado & Brian Piper & Alejandra Goytia Rios, 2018. "Identity, Patronage, and Redistribution: Economic Inequality in Bolivia under Evo Morales," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 26-41, July.
    10. Peter Mikek, 2023. "Financial deepening and income inequality: is there a financial Kuznetz curve in Latin America?," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(1), pages 103-125, March.
    11. Porras, Laila, 2015. "Croissance, inégalités et pauvreté au sein des pays émergents : le cas des BRICS," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 18.
    12. Cruz-Martinez, Gibran, 2019. "Comparative social policy in contemporary Latin America: Concepts, theories and a research agenda," SocArXiv ygh8d, Center for Open Science.
    13. Kapelyuk Sergey, 2014. "Impact of minimum wage on income distribution and poverty in Russia," EERC Working Paper Series 14/03e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    inequality; poverty; social policy; new left; Latin America;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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    1. Nora Lustig in Wikipedia Spanish

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