Argentina & Australia. Divergent Manufacturing Trajectories. An analysis of differing levels of political order,entrepreneurship, and equality of two settler societies on the Southern Hemispere.

Abstract

This thesis is a comparative analysis that investigates the structural causes behind the Argentine divergence vis-à-vis Australia. It argues that the divergence can be located in the early 1950s, using quantitative indicators in the manufacturing industries, such as labor productivity (LP), Horsepower per person engaged (HPppe) and the operation scale. With regards to the qualitative indicators it was found that the Argentine high levels of inequality, and the relatively low levels of political order, and entrepreneurship in comparison with Australia were the primary structual causes behind the divergent economic outcome. Besides the structural causes there were also proximate causes that help in the expalnation of the divergence in the early 1950s. The effects of WW II and the rise of Perón were seen to have significant consequences that would explain the divergence in this period.