Labor in the Puerto Rican Economy: Postwar Development and Stagnation

This volume is a theoretical and empirical examination of human resource growth and change in postwar Puerto Rico. The study is empirically based, but emphasis is given to econometric results as opposed to econometric methods. The main concern is with issues of economic efficiency. In particular, the book focuses on efficiency in the use of human resources during rapid industrialization. Nonetheless, Santiago subscribes to the notion that economic growth is a necessary but not sufficient condition for economic development. Understanding the larger historical and social processes that encompass economic development requires drawing together, in a multidisciplinary way, information from diverse fields and methodologies. This work helps us to better understand the process of economic development, thus providing directions for practical solutions to the pressing economic problems faced by the majority of the population of the planet.

Much of the critique of the Puerto Rican development strategy is based on its negative impact on income distribution and the fact that it promotes dependency on the United States. This book concludes that, despite its focus on economic growth and rapid industrialization, Puerto Rico’s use of resources has been less than optimal, and that on efficiency grounds, the Puerto Rican development model offers some successes but significant errors for developing nations. This work examines those successes and errors and will instruct both economists and policy makers in development economics, labor economics, and Latin American studies.