Felipe Valencia Caicedo - Origins of Latin American Inequality

Abstract

How deep are the roots of Latin America's economic inequalities? In this talk we survey both the history and historiography of the region's extreme economic disparities, focusing on the most recent academic contributions. We begin by documenting the broad patterns of national and sub-national differences in income and inequality, building on the seminal contributions of Sokoloff and Engerman (2000); Engerman and Sokoloff (2002, 2018) and aiming to capture different dimensions of inequality. We then proceed thematically, providing correlational evidence and summarizing the key recent studies on each topic. We focus on colonial institutions, slavery, land reform, education and the role of elites. Finally, we conduct a "replication" exercise on some key papers in the literature, extending their results to include different measures of inequality as outcomes.

Biography

Felipe Valencia Caicedo is an Assistant Professor in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia. Prior to that, he worked at the Department of Economics at Bonn University. Felipe obtained his Ph.D. in Economics cum laude from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in 2015, through the European Doctoral Programme. He worked as a Consultant at the World Bank in Washington, DC, from 2008 to 2010 and an Analyst at Goldman Sachs in 2005. His primary research interests are in Development Economics, Economic History and Economic Growth, with an emphasis on Latin America.