Colombia’s Slow Economic Growth From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century

Looking at the years 1870-2016, this book analyses the reasons behind Colombia’s chronically slow economic growth. As a comparative economic history, it examines why Colombia has seen lower growth rates than countries with similar institutions, culture and colonial origins, such as Argentina in 1870-1914, Mexico in 1930-1980, and Chile from 1982 onwards.

While Colombia's history has shown relative macroeconomic stability, it has also shown a limited capacity for integrating into the world economy and embracing technological breakthroughs compared to the rest of the world, including steam, mass production and Information Technology. This volume thus moves away from the long-held view that institutional path dependence is the main determinant of differences in long-run economic growth across countries.

1. The Particular Colombian Case in Latin America: A Singular Path with the Same Results
2. The Price of the Regeneration, 1870-1914: How Colombia Missed the Belle Époque
3. The Take-Off, 1914-1929: Coffee, Railways and Regional Divergence
   
4. The Liberal Republic, 1930-1945: Overcoming the Great Depression, the Rise of Interventionism and Economic Slowdown
   
5. The Import Substitution Era, 1945-1980: The Consolidation of Interventionism, Financial Repression and the Slow Way to Industrialisation
   
6. The Lost Decades, 1980-2000: External Debt, Structural Reforms and a Deep Financial Crisis
   
7. Commodities-Driven Growth, 2001-2018: The Colombian Miracle
   

Ivan Luzardo-Luna is Researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. His research interests include labour markets, post-crises behaviour and development economics in Latin America.