# Case Study: Argentina (1913–2001) Back to [[Economic Freedom and Prosperity]] · [[Post Analysis - Handre on Economic Freedom Case Studies (2026-10-23)|Post analysis]] · People: [[People/Juan Perón]], [[People/Domingo Cavallo]], [[People/Javier Milei]] · See also [[Related Trends]] **What the post says:** Argentina was top ten in 1930. Then price controls, nationalisation, export taxes and money printing led to the 2001 default on $132bn and collapsing real wages. ## What the record shows | Item | Finding | Source | |---|---|---| | Rank in 1913, 1929, 1930 | 10th in 1913, 11th in 1929, **12th in 1930** of the countries with data (Maddison 2023, 2011 int'l $; 1930 value $6,503 vs US $10,695) | ✔ [OWID/Maddison](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-maddison-project-database) | | "Argentine paradox" | Among the top five in the late 1800s ⚠️ (by older Maddison data), with a peak around 1913 and a slow relative decline after 1929 | ✔ [*LAER* 2017 "Argentina Paradox"](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40503-017-0051-8) | | | Doubling 1928 GDP per capita took until 2000 | ✔ [*LAER* intro](https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/LAER%20Introduction%20to%20Argentine%20Exceptionalism_3c49e7ee-4f31-49a0-ba21-6e2b726cd7c5.pdf) | | Measurement doubts | Some argue the decline is partly a measurement artefact of a growing informal sector | ✔ [Capital As Power 2021](https://capitalaspower.com/2021/09/argentina-decline-or-urbanisation/) | | Interventions | Perón (1946–55): IAPI export monopoly, nationalised railways (1948), price controls. Export taxes recurred for decades. Inflation-financed deficits ended in the 1989–90 hyperinflation | ◻ | | Convertibility (1991–2001) | Under Menem and Cavallo, the peso was pegged one-to-one to the dollar under currency-board rules, which ended the monetary financing of deficits. Big privatisations followed | ◻ (also @Handre, [Jun 25](https://x.com/Handre/status/2070121149946532086)) | | 2001 default | Moratorium declared Dec 23, 2001 on about $132bn of public debt (headline total). Defaulted bonds were about $81.8bn (Euromoney 2006 ◻) | ✔ [NYT](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/24/world/argentine-leader-declares-default-on-billions-in-debt.html), [BBC](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1727922.stm) | | Wages and poverty | Real wages fell 23.7% in 2002. Poverty was 57.5% in October 2002 | ✔ [MECON](https://cdi.mecon.gob.ar/bases/docelec/dp3063.pdf), [BBC](https://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2715367.stm) | ## Reading The long decline and the interventionist record are real. The post's causal link to 2001 is the weak point. The default followed **ten years of a hard peg and market reforms**, the kind of policy the post praises elsewhere. Most accounts blame the peg's overvaluation, dollar debt, fiscal slippage at the provincial level, and external shocks (Brazil's 1999 devaluation) ◻. "Printed currency" fits 1975–1990, not 2001.