The decomposition of real commodity prices using the BP filtering technique provides evidence of four super-cycles over 1865 to 2009 ranging between 30 to 40 years and with amplitudes of 20 to 40 percent higher or lower than the long-run trend. Non-oil price super-cycles follow those of world GDP, indicating that they are essentially demanddetermined. In contrast, causality runs in the opposite direction for oil prices. In turn, the mean of each super-cycle of non-oil commodities is generally lower than that of the previous cycle suggesting a step-wise deterioration in support of the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis. Tropical agriculture experienced the strongest and steepest long-term downward trend through the twentieth century, followed by non-tropical agriculture and metals. Again, in contrast to these trends, real oil prices have experienced a long-tern upward trend, which was only interrupted temporarily during some four decades of the twentieth century.

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This paper analyzes the role of real exchange rate (RER) policies in promoting economic development. Markets provide a suboptimal amount of investment in sectors characterized by learning spillovers. We show that a stable and competitive RER policy may correct for this externality and other related market failures. The resulting development of these sectors leads to overall faster economic growth. A system of effectively multiple exchange rates is required when spillovers across different tradable sectors differ. The impact of RER policies is increased when they are complemented by traditional industrial policies that increase the elasticity of the aggregate supply to the RER. Among the instruments required to implement a stable and competitive RER are interventions in the foreign exchange market and regulation of capital flows. We also discuss the trade-offs associated with alternative stable and competitive RER policies.

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Microeconomically, the case for liberalisation is dubious under increasing returns to scale and when firms can invest directly in productivity enhancement. Distributional effects of commercial policy changes can be regressive and large, but the ‘rents’ they generate can serve as a basis for effective policy intervention contingent on firms' performance. Macroeconomically, the case of liberalisation rests on Say's Law, which is not always enforced. Recent combined current and capital market liberalisations have been associated with strong exchange rates and high interest rates and output and productivity growth have positive mutual feedbacks which liberalisation may well suppress.

This paper shows that there was an improvement in the barter terms of trade for non-fuel commodities vs. manufactures in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, followed by significant deterioration over the rest of the 20 th century. However, the decline over most of the 20 th century was neither continuous nor was it distributed evenly among different commodity groups. The far-reaching changes that the world economy underwent around 1920 and again around 1979 led to a stepwise deterioration which, over the long term, was reflected in roughly a halving of real commodity prices. Tropical agriculture fared the worst, whereas minerals had the best performance, with non-tropical agriculture in an intermediate situation. RESUMENEste ensayo muestra que hubo una mejoría en los términos de intercambio de trueque de los productos bá sicos a fines del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX, seguido por un deterioro significativo en el resto del siglo XX. Sin embargo, el deterioro durante la mayor parte del siglo XX no fue continuo ni se distribuyó en forma homogénea en diferentes grupos de productos. Los cambios de largo alcance que experimentó la economía mundial en torno a 1920 y nuevamente a 1979 se reflejaron en una caída escalonada, que a largo plazo redujo los precios reales de productos bá sicos aproximadamente a la mitad. La agricultura tropical experimentó el peor desempeñ o y la minería el mejor, con la agricultura no tropical en una situació n intermedia. El incremento de los precios que se experimentó en la primera década del siglo XXI puede ser el inicio de una nueva fase de alza de larga duració n, pero es demasiado temprano para saberlo.Palabras clave: Productos bá sicos, términos de intercambio, hipó tesis de Prebisch-Singer, cambios estructurales