These two studies are part of a program of research on the role of transport in development, financed by AID and carried out under the auspices of the Brookings Institution. Both are of high quality.
In The Impact of Highway Investment on Development the authors are interested in the general problem of the contribution that transport can make, especially in the initial stages, toward development, and to that end have utilized a series of case studies, chiefly in Latin America. On-the-spot investigations were made in Bolivia, Guatemala, and El Salvador, and material was examined from Nicaragua, Peru, and Venezuela (as well as four non-Latin American countries). The authors recognize the conceptual and statistical problems involved but conclude that there are no “magical properties in transport investment that warrant the excessive attention frequently paid to them” (p. 218). They criticize the “whole notion of take-off and stages of growth” (p. 175), which has been popular in political circles. Development results from a cluster of changes, and the probability of success of a transportation investment is “dependent on the existence of prior dynamism in the region or nation as a whole” (p. 211).
The study by Robert T. Brown reflects the official interest of the United States in the movement toward economic integration in Latin America. It is based on the assumption that economic integration is desirable, and that the benefits of greater industrialization should be distributed geographically as widely as possible. The study is confined to South America (Middle America is not brought into the picture), and it attempts to present a transportation strategy for the continent.
The book identifies nine economic regions of South America, summarizes the basic resources and population distribution, and suggests priorities for transport investment in each. Heretofore intra-South American trade has been almost completely dependent on ocean shipping. Hence major emphasis is given to that sector, but river, rail, highway, and air transport are also considered. In South America it is considered feasible “to jump from ocean transport to air transport over many major routes …”(p. 210).
The study recognizes the severe geographical obstacles to economic integration. At present, trade within South America is largely confined to trade between adjoining countries, although the ten republics can form as many as forty-five different pairs of trading partners. The reader closes the book with a strong feeling of the magnitude of the task and of the little that has been done so far to bring about greater economic integration. The series of basic economic statistics in the appendix are of value for general reference, as well as specifically on transportation questions.
