Modelos econométricos para los países de Centroamérica

The terms of trade for commodities in the twentieth century

This paper looks at the evolution of the terms of trade between commodities and manufactures in the twentieth century. A statistical analysis of the relative price series for 24 commodities and eight indices reveals a significant deterioration in their barter terms of trade over the years 1900 to 2000. This decline was not continuous, however, nor was it distributed evenly among individual products. As is shown here, the far-reaching changes that the world economy underwent around 1920 and again around 1980 led to a stepwise deterioration which, over the long term, was reflected in a decline o…

Los términos de intercambio de los productos básicos en el siglo XX

Este artículo examina la evolución de los términos de intercambio entre productos básicos y manufacturas en los años 1900 a 2000. Un análisis estadístico de las series de precios relativos de 24 productos básicos y ocho índices muestra que hubo un deterioro marcado de los términos de intercambio de trueque a lo largo del siglo XX, pero que este deterioro no fue continuo, ni tampoco homogéneo entre productos. Según se muestra aquí, las profundas transformaciones que enfrentó la economía mundial alrededor de 1920 y de 1980 se tradujeron en un deterioro escalonado, que se reflejó a largo plazo en…

Revista de la CEPAL no.79

CEPAL Review no.79

Returning to an external debate: the terms of trade for commodities in the twentieth century

Abstract This paper looks at the evolution of the terms of trade between commodities and manufactures in the twentieth century. A statistical analysis of the relative price series for 24 commodities and of eight indices reveals a significant deterioration in their barter terms of trade over the course of the twentieth century. This decline was neither continuous, nor was it distributed evenly among individual products, however. The data show that the far-reaching changes that the world economy underwent around 1920 and again around 1980 led to…