Abstract

GAGGERO, Alejandro  and  NEMINA, Pablo. Origin and Consolidation of the Dollarization of Argentina's Real Estate Market. Ens. Econ. [online]. 2022, vol.32, n.60, pp.136-159.  Epub July 28, 2022. ISSN 0121-117X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/ede.v32n60.92443.

The Argentinean real estate market dollarization was installed in the late 1970s and, after a brief retraction, was consolidated in the following decade. The few studies that analyze the problem conceive dollarization as a rational adaptation to inflation or a cultural rout. This paper seeks to contribute to economic sociology studies on the qualitative determination of prices. From an economic sociology perspective, how the changes in the economic policy institutional framework carried out by the military dictatorship, and changes in economic actors' expectations, influenced the dollarization of the housing market is examined. Beyond an automatic adaptation by the population, it is argued that the housing market dollarization was the result of three processes that came together in those years: the exchange rate and financial liberalization, which favoured access to the US currency; the commodification of housing; and institutionalization of inflation. Also, it was a process not without setbacks and decidedly not promoted by the government.

JEL: A14; D81; D84; R30.

Keywords : dollarization; real estate market; Argentina; inflation; indexation; economic expectations; housing commodification; Neoliberalism.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )