Abstract
While there is abundant literature on the sources of growth for the devel-oped countries, (DCs) there is a quite a void in this area of research for the less developed countries (LDCs). For the Latin American economies Bruton [1967], Corea [1970], and recently, Victor J. Elias tried to fill this gap. Elias has taken upon himself the task of identifying the sources of growth and the forces that underlie them for seven Latin American economies, namely Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela for the period 1940-85. He also addresses himsel Ito the all important question, raised earlier by Denison (1967) i.e., why do growth rates differ?. The differential of interest to him being that between the LDCs and the DCs. The book is a rich collection of data on the Latin American economies. There are 11 quite easy to understand and concise chapters, while more detailed information, the estimates and the figures etc., appear at the end of each chapter. The technicalities related with the methodology and detailed data on these economics appear in six appendices. Elias has not tried to add a 'new wrinkle', or to undertake any methodological-cal innovation. He uses standard growth accounting techniques, rather in the Jorgenson and Griliches (1967) tradition of trying to identify the contribution both of the conventional and non-conventional inputs to overall growth, as well as for the agricultural, manufacturing and the public sectors in the seven countries. The basic formula in this methodology states that the rate of output growth (GDP) is equal to (1) the rate of growth of gross labour plus the rate of growth of its quality times the labour income share plus (2)the rate of growth of the gross capital input plus the rate of growth of capital quality times the capital income share plus (3) the rate of growth of total factor productivity. The methodology is useful for the light it throws on the role played by each input,
Shahida Wizarat, Javed Akbar Ansari. (1990) BOOK REVIEWS, Pakistan Journal of Applied Economics, Voume-09, Issue-1.
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