Stabilization And Growth In Latin America

Since the 1980s, Latin American countries have initiated a re-orientation of economic policies in whose formulation and implementation the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) have played a key role. This book shows that the IMF/WB programmes have not achieved the expected results and allows the reader to understand the shortcomings and limitations of the orthodox approach. By analyzing the macro models that inspire policy based lending, the author argues that the weaknesses arise as a result of a questionable internal logic of the models, mistaken premises and a failure to account for the empirical evidence. The book claims and outlines an alternative Post-Keynesian and Structuralist framework to deal with stabilization and growth issues in Latin America. The basic model is based on important asymmetries among productive sectors and takes into account the existence of oligopolistic markets, money wage rigidities, income distribution and endogenous money. It is implied in this model the need to rethink the direction and overall form of economic policy.

Over the 1980s and 1990s, most Latin American countries witnessed a retrenchment of the public sector away from infrastructure provision and an opening up of infrastructure activities to the private sector. This book analyzes the consequences of these policy changes from two perspectives. First, it reviews in a comparative framework the major trends in infrastructure provision in Latin America over the last two decades. Second, it evaluates the implication of these trends for economic growth and public deficits in the region. The book shows that in most countries private participation did not fully offset the public sector retreat. The result was a slowdown in infrastructure accumulation, which entailed a significant growth cost and weakened the intended impact of the infrastructure spending cuts on public sector insolvency.

The debt crisis in Latin America has rekindled debate about the effects of the IMF's stabilization programs in the Third World. Critics contend that these programs have short-run recessionary impacts and damage prospects for long-term growth. In response, Fund economists point to cross-country studies revealing mixed impacts on growth rates coupled with significant success in achieving the IMF's stated goals: current account and balance-of-payments improvements and inflation rate reduction. Dr. Pastor argues that the traditional growth-oriented critique is theoretically misplaced, and he recasts Fund activities in terms of class and income distribution. Applying the methodology of previous Fund studies, he evaluates the effects of IMF programs in eighteen Latin American countries in the pre-crisis period (1965-1981).

This is an excerpt of Latin America: New Challenges to Grwoth and Stability.

A detailed analysis of economic policy in Latin America with particular attention devoted to the problem of controlling inflation and stabilization. Contents include an analysis of economic policies of the 1990s; country case studies of Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and Bolivia; a thorough review of competing paradigms; a comparison of monitarist and structuralist approaches to the problem; mathematical and statistical modeling.

Comprises eight papers which examine Latin America's economic reform process during the 1980s and 1990s, and considers future steps in this reform. Includes: rethinking Latin American economic policy; good governance after stabilization; capital inflows, real exchange rate and the Mexican crisis of 1994; liquidity management in Argentina; regional free trade agreements in Chile; and the social dimension of reform.