The late arrival of David Ricardo to the Pampa. Productivity, rents and incomes in the Argentine countryside between the first globalization and the Second World War (1895-1938)

EMILIANO SALAS ARÓN

Montevideo

Simposio; V Agricliometrics conference; 2023

Instituto de Economia - UDELAR

.This paper delves into David Ricardo's classical economic theories, specifically his insights intothe origins of differential land rents within the context of agrarian capitalist development. Thestudy presents an empirical analysis of the impact of income on the agricultural sector's outputduring the Pampas agricultural expansion in Argentina, spanning the years 1900 to 1940. Inorder to provide rigorous and conclusive results, estimations were conducted for both totalmonetary value rents and total agricultural production in Argentina during the pivotal years of1895, 1914, and 1937.The findings shows the significant consequences of infrastructure growth and the modernizationof economic relations in the Argentine countryside during the early decades of the 20th century.These developments, in conjunction with a rapid expansion and utilization of available land, hadprofound effects on land prices and productivity rates. It is postulated that these changes notonly impacted positively on agricultural income but also led to an increase in the prominence ofland rents as a share of the sector's output, particularly in the period 1895-1914.Furthermore, this study highlights the enduring impact of land valorization during the firstdecade of the 20th century on the formation of rental practices within Argentina's rural sector.For instance, analysis of data from 1937 reveals that, despite the agricultural sector's crisisduring the Great Depression, the significance of land rents in relation to agricultural outputremained remarkably resilient.