ECONOMIC SWINGS AND DEMOGRAPHIC-CHANGES IN THE HISTORY OF LATIN-AMERICA

In this paper we study the effects of short-term fluctuations in indic ators of economic well-being on selected demographic response such as births, marriages and deaths at age intervals in eleven Latin American countries between 1910 and 1990. We use conventional distributed lag models to assess the magnitude and direction of effects and test a var iety of hypotheses some of which have been posed to hold in Western Eu rope and others that are more specific and tailored to the Latin Ameri can context. We also compare the magnitude and direction of effects ob tained among these countries with those obtained for pre-industrial Eu rope and uncover the existence of broadly similar patterns.