ABSTRACT

Recent studies on income inequality have some characteristics that differentiate them from their earlier counterparts. The spotlight on high incomes has illuminated a new angle from which to view income inequality. Because estimates of top income shares can be used as a proxy for power inequality, they can enrich our comprehension of the role of the elite in Latin America’s economic development. However, scholars interested in studying the history of economic inequality in Latin America face certain methodological and theoretical problems of their own: (1) because food and other commodities such as minerals represent the lion’s share of exported goods in Latin America, cycles in commodity prices have shaped the region’s economic history. Thus, the crux of income inequality in Latin America is who becomes richer and who becomes poorer when exports prices rise and fall; and (2) the sort of fiscal statistics typically used capture only a few countries and sometimes only limited periods. Thus, as I argue, scholars should use dynamic social tables to produce new information. I exemplify both points with a historical analysis of three Latin American countries: Chile, Colombia, and Argentina.

摘要

最近关于收入不平等的研究有一些与早期研究不同的特征。对高收入的关注照亮了看待收入不平等的新角度。由于对最高收入份额的估计可以用来衡量权力不平等，因此可以丰富我们对精英在拉丁美洲经济发展中的作用的理解。然而，对研究拉美经济不平等历史感兴趣的学者也面临着一些方法论和理论问题：（1）由于粮食和矿产等其他商品占拉美出口商品的最大份额，商品价格周期塑造了该地区的经济历史。因此，拉丁美洲收入不平等的症结在于，当出口价格上涨或下跌时，谁变得更富，谁变得更穷；(2) 通常使用的财政统计数据仅涵盖少数国家，有时仅涵盖有限时期。因此，正如我所说，学者应该使用动态社交表来产生新信息。我通过对智利、哥伦比亚和阿根廷这三个拉丁美洲国家的历史分析来举例说明这两点。