Argentina under Perón, 1973–76: The Nation’s Experience with a Labour-based Government

258 Pages·1983·56.21 MB·English

by  Guido di Tella (auth.)

ARGENTINA UNDER PERON, 1973-76
St Antony's/Macmillan Series
General editor: Archie Brown, Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford
Archie Brown and Michael Kaser (editors) SOVIET POLICY FOR THE
1980s
S. B. Burman CHIEFDOM POLITICS AND ALIEN LAW
Wilhelm Deist THE WEHRMACHT AND GERMAN REARMAMENT
Ricardo Ffrench-Da•:is and Ernesto Tironi (editors) LA TIN AMERICA AND
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Bohdan Harasymiw POLITICAL ELITE RECRUITMENT IN THE SOVIET
UNION
Richard Holt SPORT AND SOCIETY IN MODERN FRANCE
Albert Hourani EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST
THE EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST
Paul Kennedy and Anthony Nicholls (editors) NATIONALIST AND
RACIALIST MOVEMENTS IN BRITAIN AND GERMANY BEFORE
1914
Richard Kindersley (editor) IN SEARCH OF EUROCOMMUNISM
Gisela C. Lebzelter POLITICAL ANTI-SEMITISM IN ENGLAND,
1918-1939
C. A. MacDonald THE UNITED STATES, BRITAIN AND APPEASE
MENT, 1936-1939
Patrick O'Brien (editor) RAILWAYS AND THE ECONOMIC DEVELOP
MENT OF WESTERN EUROPE, 1830-1914
Roger Owen (editor) STUDIES IN THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
HISTORY OF PALESTINE IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH
CENTURIES
Irena Powell WRITERS AND SOCIETY IN MODERN JAPAN
T. H. Rigby and Ferenc Feher (editors) POLITICAL LEGITIMATION IN
COMMUNIST STATES
Marilyn Rueschemeyer PROFESSIONAL WORK AND MARRIAGE
A. J. R. Russell-Wood THE BLACK MAN IN SLAVERY AND FREEDOM
IN COLONIAL BRAZIL
Lewis H. Siegelbaum THE POLITICS OF INDUSTRIAL MOBILIZATION
IN RUSSIA, 1914-17
David Stafford BRITAIN AND EUROPEAN RESISTANCE, 1940-1945
Nancy Stepan THE IDEA OF RACE IN SCIENCE
Guido di Tella ARGENTINA UNDER PER6N, 1973-76
Rosemary Thorp and Laurence Whitehead (editors) INFLATION AND
STABILISATION IN LATIN AMERICA
Rudolf L. T6kes (editor) OPPOSITION IN EASTERN EUROPE
ARGENTINA UNDER
PERON, 1973-76
The Nation's Experience with
a Labour-based Government
Guido di Tella
in association with
Palgrave Macmillan
© Guido di Tella 1983
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1983 978-0-333-28085-0
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1983 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-349-05185-4 ISBN 978-1-349-05183-0 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-1-349-05183-0
To those
who believed with hope
and remember with sorrow

Contents
List of Tables viii
Acknowledgements X
Introduction
2 The Long Wait 16
3 The Peronist Presidencies 50
4 The Structural Reform Programme 84
5 The Short-term Economic Policies Ill
6 Some of the Major Economic Issues:
Investment, Profits and Trade 139
7 Yet Another Major Issue: Inflation 161
8 Political Epilogue 198
Statistical Appendix 209
Index 237
vii
List of Tables
3.1 Presidential Elections, 11 March 1973 51
3.2 Presidential Elections, 23 September 1973 60
4.1 Significant Laws and Agreements Connected with the
Reform Programme 87
4.2 Trade with the Soviet Bloc 96
4.3 Bank Loans by Type of Bank 100
6.1 Total and Sectoral Investment, 1950-78 142
6.2 Investment Series, 1968-78 143
6.3 Estimated Variables 144
6.4 Deviations of Investment from Estimated Trend
Values, 1951-78, yearly data 146
6.5 Deviations of Investment from Estimated Trend
Values, 1968-78, quarterly data 147
6.6 Evolution of Profits 152
6.7 International Trade, 1970-6 156
7.1 Weights of the Components of the Wholesale
Price Index 167
7.2 Relative Price Oscillation, Residuals and Inflation,
1972-6 168
7.3 Logarithmic Changes of Prices and GOP, 194 7-76 171
A.l.l Rate of Change of GNP and Investment 210
A.1.2 Investment as a Percentage of GNP 212
A.2 Rates of Change of Consumer and Wholesale Price
Indexes 214
A.3 Relative Price Movements 215
A.4.1 Balance of Payments, 1966-77 (yearly figures) 216
A.4.2 Balance of Payments, 1972-7 (half-yearly figures) 217
A.5 External Debt 218
A.6 International Reserves 219
A.7 Terms of Trade 220
A.8.1 Real Rates of Exchange 221
A.8.2 Nominal Rates of Exchange 222
A.9 Liquidity Coefficient 224
Vlll
List of Tables ix
A.IO Shares of M1, M2, M3 and M4 226
A. II Sources of Money Creation 228
A.l2 Share of the National Income Accruing to
Wage-earners 230
A.l3 Transfer of Income from Debtors to Creditors 231
A.l4 Percentage Variation in the Number of Government
Employees 232
A.15 Unemployment 233
A.16 Real Wages 234
A.17 Public Sector Operations 235
A.I8 Central Government's Treasury Operations 236