La distribución regional de la producción en Uruguay, 1908-1975: propuesta metodológica y fuentes

This paper aims to present the methodology and sources used in the construction of the historical estimates of the Gross Value Added (GVA) in Uruguay at the province level. Our period of analysis covers from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1970s, and we provide estimations corresponding to 1908, 1936, 1955 and 1975, which are complemented with available information for 1961 (BROU, 1965). In general, we follow the standard methodology of indirect approximation proposed in Geary & Stark (2002), which allows distributing the total sectoral GVA among the provinces considering the wage incomes as reference. However, and depending on the available statistical information for each year and economic activity, the methodology is adjusted, and we used alternative criteria of distribution. In some cases, the Geary-Stark method is modified, and we estimated the production (for instance, in agriculture) directly. This database provides new evidence to examine the regional economic performance of Uruguay quantitatively and to explain its evolution from the final stage of the First Globalization, the central years of the State-led industrialization with the increasing relevance of public policies, to the oil crisis of the 1970s.