Las ideas del joven Prebisch

Introducción Prebisch llegó a la CEPAL por primera vez en 1949 para escribir un informe en el cual presentó su opinión acerca de los principales problemas que enfrentaba en ese entonces el desarrollo económico de América Latina (Prebisch, 1949);. Contratado como consultor externo, no contó con el apoyo de otros miembros de la institución para elaborarlo ni tuvo mucho tiempo para hacerlo, de modo que dicho informe fue expresión de ideas anteriores a su llegada a la institución. Como el contenido de ese trabajo provocó un gran impacto en los medios académicos y políticos de la región, siendo con…

Los mercados y el Estado en la evolución del "manifiesto" de Prebisch

Cuando Raúl Prebisch murió en 1986 sus ideas estaban pasadas de moda en el Washington de Ronald Reagan y en las capitales latinoamericanas, desechadas por la mayoría de los economistas occidentales como anticuadas --o incluso peligrosamente equivocadas en la nueva cruzada por la globalización. Sólo los círculos de las Naciones Unidas y un pequeño grupo de partidarios insistían en su contribución permanente. Era como si su vida hubiera sido el mero reflejo de la turbulencia de un siglo breve y violento --como lo denominó Hosbawn (1994);--; ahora que había concluido, con la guerra fría relegada …

Las ideas motrices de tres procesos de industrialización

En su versión más ortodoxa, la teoría económica neoclásica ha ocupado un lugar preferente en las discusiones de política económica de América Latina en los últimos años. De acuerdo con esa doctrina, el mecanismo del mercado, al operar en forma totalmente libre, asigna los recursos productivos en la forma más eficiente posible. Cualquier interferencia de la política estatal con esa asignación conduce a una pérdida de eficiencia y a una disminución del ritmo de crecimiento de la economía con respecto al óptimo que podría obtenerse mediante el libre juego de las fuerzas del mercado. Las virtudes …

Regímenes sectoriales, productividad y competitividad internacional

El presente artículo busca examinar diversos aspectos mesoeconómicos y microeconómicos relacionados con la productividad y la competitividad internacional en el contexto del nuevo modelo económico latinoamericano. Estos aspectos contribuyen de manera importante a explicar por qué dichas variables no han evolucionado satisfactoriamente en los distintos países y sectores de actividad, y por qué una lectura estrictamente macroeconómica bloquea la capacidad de comprensión de los cambios productivos, tecnológicos e institucionales que están ocurriendo en la sociedad, así como la identificación de u…

Participación de los pobres en los frutos del crecimiento

La influencia del crecimiento económico sobre numerosos aspectos de la economía y de la sociedad constituye un tema muy frecuente en el trabajo de los economistas. Especialmente en la actualidad, cuando en la mayoría de los países de la región están en marcha profundas transformaciones económicas y sociales y al mismo tiempo se reconoce la existencia de grandes deficiencias distributivas y de vastos porcentajes de la población en situación de pobreza, se desea conocer la capacidad del crecimiento económico para afrontar tales problemas. En este artículo se trata el tema situándolo primero en u…

El empleo en América Latina, base fundamental de la política social

Este artículo analiza las tendencias del mercado de trabajo en América Latina y el Caribe durante el decenio de l990 y plantea que el empleo debe ser la base de una estrategia de política social para la región. Comienza con un análisis de las expectativas de desempeño del mercado laboral generadas por el proceso de reforma en la región. Luego ofrece una visión general de lo sucedido efectivamente en materia de tasas de participación, generación de empleo, desempleo y salarios. También sugiere algunas razones por las cuales la realidad fue inferior a la esperada. Enseguida examina una nueva hip…

Raúl Prebisch and the development agenda at the dawn of the twenty-first century

The hundredth anniversary of the birth of Raúl Prebisch is an invaluable opportunity for us to take another look at the ideas of this great Latin American, one of the thinkers from the developing world who has had the strongest influence in world economic debates. His ideas have been the subject of heavy criticism, but much of this has been based on distorted versions of his thinking or of its practical application, rather than his true intellectual work. Taking his proposals out of their historical context has also been a frequent practice, even by some of his own followers. It should be reme…

The ideas of young Prebisch

Prebisch arrived at ECLA for the first time in 1949, to write a report in which he set out his views on the main problems then facing the economic development of Latin America (Prebisch, 1949);. As he had been hired as an outside consultant, he did not receive the support of other members of the institution in its preparation, nor did he have much time at his disposal, so that the report was a reflection of the ideas he already held prior to joining ECLA. As the content of that work made a great impact on academic and political circles in the region and came to be considered one of the basic p…

Markets and the State in the evolution of the "Prebisch manifesto"

Introduction (first paragraph); When Raúl Prebisch died in 1986 his ideas were out of fashion in Ronald Reagan's Washington and Latin American capitals, dismissed by most Western economists as passé -or even dangerously misguided in the new crusade for globalization. Only United Nations circles and a narrowing band of supporters insisted on his permanent contribution. It was as if his life had merely reflected the turbulence of the short, violent century (as Hobsbawn termed it);; now that it was over, with the Cold War consigned to history, so too (it appeared); was Prebisch&#…

The motive ideas behind three industrialization processes

In its most orthodox version, neoclassical economic theory has occupied a leading place in Latin American economic policy discussions in recent years. According to this doctrine, the market mechanisms -if allowed to operate in complete freedom- allocate production resources in the most efficient manner possible. Any interference by State policy with this allocation will lead to loss of efficiency and a reduction in the growth rate of the economy compared with the optimum level that could be obtained through the free play of the market forces. The virtues of the main body of this economic theor…

Technological change and opportunities for development as a moving target

This article puts forward an interpretation of development as a process of accumulation of technological and social capabilities dependent upon taking advantage of successive and different windows of opportunity. These windows are determined from the core countries, through the technological revolutions which occur every half-century and the four phases of their deployment. The possibilities of progressing at each opportunity depend on the achievements made in the previous phase, on identifying the nature of the next one, understanding the techno-economic paradigm of the revolution in question…

Sectoral regimes, productivity and international competitiveness

This article seeks to analyse some mesoeconomic and microeconomic aspects related with productivity and international competitiveness in the context of the new Latin American economic model. These aspects go a long way towards explaining why those variables have not evolved satisfactorily in the different countries and sectors of activity, and why a strictly macroeconomic reading prevents a proper understanding of the changes which are taking place in society at the economic, technological and institutional levels, as well as impeding the identification of a public policy agenda which could he…

Participation by the poor in the fruits of growth

The influence of economic growth on numerous aspects of the economy and society is a frequently recurring topic among economists, especially at present, when profound economic and social transformations are under way in most of the countries of the region, while simultaneously there is an awareness that there are great shortcomings in terms of income distribution and that a high percentage of the population is in a state of poverty. A strong desire therefore exists to determine the capacity of economic growth to cope with those problems. This article begins by placing the issue in a conceptual…

The facilitation of trade in the European Union

In terms of its contents, this article is a natural continuation of FAL Bulletin No. 167. In that edition of the Bulletin, conceptual progress was made in defining the notion of ?facilitation of trade? and in outlining how this issue is dealt with in some international organizations; here, information referring to the European Union (EU) is presented in a detailed fashion.…

La facilitación del comercio en la Unión Europea

Desde el punto de vista de su contenido, el presente artículo es una continuación natural del Boletín FAL No. 167. En efecto, dado que en que en él se avanzó conceptualmente en la definición del término facilitación del comercio y en explicar de manera general la forma en que este tema es abordado en algunos organismos internacionales, aquí se presenta en forma detallada la información referida a la Unión Europea (UE).…

Carta Circular de la Red de Cooperación en la Gestión Integral de Recursos Hídricos para el Desarrollo Sustentable en América Latina y el Caribe N° 15

Summary of "Report of Ad-Hoc Expert Group Meeting to consider recent Implementation Exercises of the General Data Dissemination System of the IMF

Trade, environment and development: implications for Caribbean countries

Introduction Trade and development issues have been the focus of economists, policy makers and international organizations for decades. However, environmental concerns have only come to the fore within the last couple of decades largely as a result of the work of scientists on, for example, climate change and loss in biodiversity as well as the lobbying activities of environmental groups, such as Greenpeace. The linking of environment to trade only gained international prominence since the negotiations for the Canada-United States Free Trade Area in the 1980s. However, although enviro…

The impact of privatisation on the banking sector in the Caribbean

Introduction With the failure of the import-substituting industrialisation policies of the post-war period, Caribbean countries shifted to an export-promotion strategy in the 1980s. Export promotion inevitably demanded a shifting of the relative price and productivity of tradable goods and services. To provide the necessary incentives for export promotion, countries pursued a mixture of reforms and restructuring to attract investment and to promote the competitiveness of production and exchange. The period also coincided with a shift in the development paradigm of the developed countri…

Caribbean policy response to the information age: a review of government information and communications technology policy and services in selected Caribbean countries

Caribbean governments have been reacting to the phenomenon that is the Information Age with a variety of policy initiatives. Initially governments trained most of their efforts at facilitating the development of an informatics industry, drawn there by the promise of jobs and foreign exchange earnings. However, the motives for these policy interventions have evolved over time and as a consequence, policy has matured. This paper, which is descriptive rather than analytical, draws heavily on statements made by government decision makers. It attempts to provide an overview of some of the maj…