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Title: Yet Another Tale of Two Cities: Buenos Aires and Chicago
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2009
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Abstract: Buenos Aires and Chicago grew during the nineteenth century for remarkably similar reasons. Bothcities were conduits for moving meat and grain from fertile hinterlands to eastern markets. However,despite their initial similarities, Chicago was vastly more prosperous for most of the 20th century.Can the differences between the cities after 1930 be explained by differences in the cities before thatdate? We highlight four major differences between Buenos Aires and Chicago in 1914. Chicago wasslightly richer, and significantly better educated. Chicago was more industrially developed, with about2.25 times more capital per worker. Finally, Chicagos political situation was far more stable andit wasnt a political capital. Human capital seems to explain the lions share of the divergent pathof the two cities and their countries, both because of its direct effect and because of the connectionbetween education and political instability.
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Authors: Glaeser, Edward L.; Campante, Filipe
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Publication Number: 15104
Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research
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Publisher Location: Cambridge, MA
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Other
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