El impacto del ferrocarril sobre el crecimiento económico argentino durante la primera globalización

Abstract

Historians have often highlighted the essential economic role of railways in Argentina during the First Globalisation. In this context, this work tries to provide a complete estimation of the direct contribution of railways to Argentinean economic growth before 1914. According to the available information, the social saving of freight and passenger railway transport may be estimated as ca. 22.3 percent of the country's GDP in 1913. This confirms the idea that Argentina was one of the countries in which the railways had a higher impact. On the basis of that figure and the evolution of railway capital stock per worker, the direct economic benefits of the railways may be estimated as accounting for approximately 20 percent of income per capita growth between the beginning of the railway era and 1913. This percentage is almost five times as large as the average participation of the railway sector in the Argentinean GDP throughout the period. In addition, as far as this percentage does not include the indirect effects of the railways, it may actually be considered as a lower bound of the total economic impact of the Argentinean railways.