Publication: Patrones de consumo de las familias de trabajadores en Buenos Aires, Argentina,entre 1907 y 1933
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2019-12-01
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Asociación Uruguaya de Historia Económica
Abstract
La historia de los niveles de vida en Argentina a finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX requiere precisiones sobre los patrones de consumo de las clases populares para poder construir índices de precios que permitan transformar variables nominales en reales. Existen diversos ejemplos de conjuntos de ponderaciones de los distintos tipos de gasto en las familias obreras en Argentina, sin embargo, esas proporciones no son coincidentes.Este artículo analiza informes editados por el Departamento Nacional del Trabajo que publica los resultados de encuestas de gasto familiar en la Capital Federal realizadas durante los años 1907, 1908, 1911, 1912 y 1933 y analiza la evolución de los porcentajes de gasto de los principales rubros de consumo, sus variaciones en el tiempo y el impacto sobre ellos de los distintos niveles de ingresos y del tamaño de la familia.Sobre la base de esos análisis, el estudio se propone estimar las curvas de Engel para los períodos 1907-12 y para 1933. Los resultados sugieren que el porcentaje de gasto en alimentos se reducía a medida que el ingreso por adulto equivalente familiar aumentaba y que, para un dado ingreso, el porcentajede gasto en alimentos aumentó significativamente en la década de 1930 en relación al período anterior a la IGM.
The history of the standards of living in Argentina between the last decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century requires the knowledge of households’ consumption patterns which are the base for elaborating adequate price indices. The literature has proposed several sets of weights for the different kind of goods consumed by working-class households in Argentina in this period and they are not always coincidental.This article presents a new dataset of households expenditure of working class families collected by the Departamento Nacional del Trabajo in the years 1907, 1908, 1911, 1912 and 1933. With this infor-mation, we suggest some hypothesis about the evolution of the expenditure shares of the main items of consumption, its variations in time and the impact on them of the different income levels and the size of the family.The estimation of the Engel curves for the periods 1907-12 and for 1933 suggests that the percentage of food expenditure was reduced as the income per adult equivalent of the family increased, but, for a given income, the percentage of food expenditure increased significantly in the 1930s in relation to the period before the WWI.
The history of the standards of living in Argentina between the last decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century requires the knowledge of households’ consumption patterns which are the base for elaborating adequate price indices. The literature has proposed several sets of weights for the different kind of goods consumed by working-class households in Argentina in this period and they are not always coincidental.This article presents a new dataset of households expenditure of working class families collected by the Departamento Nacional del Trabajo in the years 1907, 1908, 1911, 1912 and 1933. With this infor-mation, we suggest some hypothesis about the evolution of the expenditure shares of the main items of consumption, its variations in time and the impact on them of the different income levels and the size of the family.The estimation of the Engel curves for the periods 1907-12 and for 1933 suggests that the percentage of food expenditure was reduced as the income per adult equivalent of the family increased, but, for a given income, the percentage of food expenditure increased significantly in the 1930s in relation to the period before the WWI.
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Keywords
Consumo, Alimentos, Gasto de los hogares, Consumption, Food, Engel's curve, Curva de Engel, Household's expenditures
Bibliographic citation
Nicolini, E.& Correa Deza, M.F. (2019). Patrones de consumo de las familias de trabajadores en Buenos Aires, Argentina entre 1907 y 1933. Revista Uruguaya de Historia Económica, 16, pp. 10-25