Research

Working Papers

• The Resource Blessing. How Commodity Booms Ended Territorial Disputes in South America

  Abstract

  Many accounts characterize economic expansion in Latin America as a delayed process because of the protracted political turmoil following independence conflicts. In this paper, I argue that the political order that allowed business to thrive since the late 19th century was endogenous to economic opportunities triggered by the “first globalization” (1870–1914). Capital-intensive commodity booms significantly raised the opportunity cost of unresolved territorial disputes over territories rich in or highly suitable for these commodities. As large amounts of capital were needed to capitalize on these new economic opportunities, states faced mounting pressure to reach agreements over the establishment of stable borders, reducing the jurisdictional and policy uncertainties that unresolved territorial disputes implied for doing business in these regions. Empirically, the article examines how the Amazon Rubber Boom (1889-1912) accelerated the end of South American territorial disputes over territories highly suitable for the growth of para rubber. Survival analysis exploiting exogenous variation in land suitability for para rubber across disputed territories and rubber pricing across time supports the hypothesis that increases in rubber pricing accelerated the resolution of disputes over territories suitable for rubber and not over other disputed territories. The study aims to contribute to our understanding of the interplay between economic and political development, contributing specifically to the literature on state formation, territorial claims, and the resource curse.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• Telias, D., and Wilchinski, M. (2023). Las donaciones de China hacia América Latina y sus determinantes: Enseñanzas del caso uruguayo. Revista Uruguaya de Ciencia Política.

• Acosta y Lara, F. and Wilchinski, M. (2022). La batalla virtual por la memoria: un análisis de las memorias en disputa durante la Marcha del Silencio del 2020 en Twitter en Uruguay. Teknokultura. Revista de Cultura Digital y Movimientos Sociales.

Book Chapters

• Pose, N. and Wilchinski, M. (2021). Pasado, presente y ¿futuro? El acuerdo de asociación Unión Europea – Mercosur y la cuestión ambiental. En Martínez, I. (ed.) La nueva agenda de la economía internacional y su impacto geoestratégico en la política internacional. Ciudad de México: UNAM. In edition.

• Moraes, J., Acosta y Lara, F., Martínez, G. and Wilchinski, M. (2021). ‟We are fantastic”: Are We?. En Moraes, J. y Pérez, V. (ed.) De la estabilidad al equilibrio inestable: elecciones y comportamiento electoral en Uruguay, 2019. Montevideo: UdelaR.

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