Author(s)

Panagiotis Evangelopoulos

Department of Economics, University of Peloponnese, Tripolis, Greece.

In North America the establishment of the institutions of individual liberty and free enterprise demonstrate that prosperity is a function of freedom. Diametrically opposite, Latin America has throughout its history been required to endure attempts at imposing collectivist institutions. The new institutional economic historian approach implies that poor economic performance is attributable to the inefficient institutional framework. Based on this analysis I explain the reasons of the wealth differences between North and Latin America.

Individual Liberty; Free Enterprise; Collectivism; Economic Development

P. Evangelopoulos, "Institutional Inefficiencies in Latin America," Theoretical Economics Letters, Vol. 2 No. 5, 2012, pp. 517-519. doi: 10.4236/tel.2012.25095.