Economists in the Americas

The chapters add nuance to a story that has been well told before, namely, how Latin American economists' ideas changed from a CEPAL (Comisión Económica para América Latina) orientation related to importsubstituting industrialization in the 1950s-60s to the free-market-based orientation of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Studies 2011-01, Vol.36 (71), p.308-311
Main Author: Hira, Anil
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Americas
Economics
Economists
Global economy
Markoff, John
Montecinos, Veronica
Nonfiction
North America
REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
Social scientists
World economy
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Summary:The chapters add nuance to a story that has been well told before, namely, how Latin American economists' ideas changed from a CEPAL (Comisión Económica para América Latina) orientation related to importsubstituting industrialization in the 1950s-60s to the free-market-based orientation of the 1980s-90s. As those of us familiar with this story know, and as [Veronica Montecinos]'s chapter reminds us, the change centred around the "Chicago Boys," University of Chicago-trained Chilean economists who came to influence the policies pursued by Pinochet after the military coup in 1973. Other case study chapters point out that the Chicago school and orthodox views in general seeped through the region through a variety of channels, including direct training, networks, and foundation funding for think tanks. Contributors to the volume make the important point that the ways in which the neoliberal model was adopted, along with its substantial degree of influence, varied greatly across the continent. For example, Glen Biglaiser points out in his chapter on Argentina that there was actually reluctance if not resentment toward Chilean economists hired to train local counterparts. In her excellent chapter on Mexico, Sarah Babb notes the close links between the state and Mexican economists, dating back to the revolution and the founding of the original economics institutions there, UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) foremost among them. Adolfo Garcé 's chapter on Uruguay depicts an economics profession that was developed in a manner largely out of touch with the country's policy interests.
ISSN:0826-3663
2333-1461