(Mexico City, 25 March 2010) The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Institute of Economic Studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) launched the International Award for Research on Economic Development "Juan F. Noyola", named after one of the main proponents of Latin American structuralism.
The contest will be held every two years and is geared at academics, professionals and intellectuals residing in Latin America.
As of today, contestants may submit an original unpublished monograph of up to 200 pages on economic development issues and that may contribute to policy-making and analysis. They may be written in Spanish or Portuguese.
The award was launched today by ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena, and UNAM Chancellor José Narro Robles during the International Seminar "Industrial Policy and Development" held at that university.
The award consists of a monetary prize and the publication and dissemination of the research. Contest guidelines are available on the ECLAC Subregional Headquarters in Mexico's Internet site.
Mexican intellectual Juan F. Noyola is considered one of the creators of the structuralist theory of inflation in the 1950s. He was part of a group of Latin American economists brought together at ECLAC by Raúl Prebisch in 1950, along with Celso Furtado (Brazil), Aníbal Pinto and Osvaldo Sunkel (Chile) and Víctor Urquidi (México).
"After the disappointing results of the market reforms implemented in the 1990s and in light of the recent impact of the global financial crisis, our region urgently needs to find answers to the same questions Noyola posed decades ago: how can we detonate and sustain high economic expansion aimed at greater equality without falling into an inflationary spiral or in a balance of payments or fiscal crisis?" said Bárcena, noting the validity of Noyola's thinking today.
During the 10 years he spent at ECLAC, Noyola contributed significantly to the commission's initial concepts and to the development of a theoretic, alternative paradigm to conventional economics. Noyola died in a plane crash in 1962 at the age of 40.
For more information and bilateral interviews, contact Pedro Cote, Communications Coordinator at ECLAC's Subregional Headquarters in Mexico. Telephone: 5263 9714, cellular +52 55 2109 7227; Email: pedro.cote@cepal.org.
