Diversity of economic development in Portuguese-speaking countries

Abstract

The rates of growth and stability of economic development of the countries of the Portuguese world in the years 1870-2018 are investigated. The comparison has been carried out for 15 economic cycles, which are grouped into following historical periods: monarchical, dictatorial and democratic. The developed method for researching economic development policies makes it possible to quantitatively assess the historical fate of territories in terms of growth and risk. The indicators of the standard deviation of the growth rates of real gross domestic product were used as an indicator of sustainability. The features of progressive, regressive, conservative and aggressive policies of economic development are described. It is shown that during the entire studied period, only Spain which is beyond the Portuguese-speaking word demonstrated similarity in development with Portugal. Brazil's development trend deviated from the metropolis after 130 years of independence and 60 years of obvious institutional differences. African colonies in their turn immediately began to demonstrate a drastically different development policy. This proves that culture has a more significant and long-term impact on economic development than state and social institutions. The results obtained show that the Portuguese world has not formed a separate civilization with special and peculiar traits to be united with the common historical fate.