The Economies of Latin America

While Latin America accounts for approximately 7 percent of the world economy, easily accessible information on the economies of the region is not always easy to find. The existing literature on Latin American economics usually assumes some previous familiarity with the region and is focused on government policy choices. The Economies of Latin America is a book for the general reader needing a quick introduction to the economics of the region.

The book is composed of three parts: the first explains Latin America's economic history and a description of the central economic challenges of the region. The second offers country-specific details. The final part deals with the economic future of the region where the authors put forth a Latin American version of success.

This book is a useful, in-depth introduction for students of Latin American economics as well as the general reader.

Auteur

Cesar M. Rodriguez, Department of Economics, Portland State University, USA; W. Charles Sawyer, Texas Christian University, USA

Contenu

Chapter 1. Introduction

1. The Promise of Latin America

2. Land

3. People

4. Resources

5. Latin America as a Relative Failure: You Aren't in East Asia

6. History Matters

7. History

8. The Post WW II mistake

9. Recovery

10. The Continuation of Economic Failure

11. Education

12. Infrastructure

13. Social Issues

14. Structural Change

15. The Details

16. ABM

17. The rest of South America

18. Central America

Chapter 2. A Brief Economic History

1. The Dismal History

2. The Colonial Legacy

3. Post-Independence Losses

4. What could have happened: The Golden Age

5. Wars and Depression

6. Debt as a regional habit

7. The Wrong Turn

8. Import Substitution Industrialization

9. Economic Isolation as a choice

10. Subsidies to Industry

11. Economic Rents and Inequality

12. The Predictable Collapse

13. The 1970s

14. Debt Shocks

15. Exchange Rate Shocks

16. Macroeconomic Instability

17. The way out: The Brady Plan

18. The New Normal

19. Macroeconomic Stability

20. Commodity based growth (or not)

Chapter 3. What's Wrong: The Usual List of Suspects

1. Growth Accounting

2. Limits to Growth

3. Education and Infrastructure

4. Structural Change

5. Social Issues

6. The Curse of Informality

Chapter 4 Argentina and Brazil

1. The Basics: Population, GDP, GDP per capita

2. The Macroeconomic Record

3. Economic Structure: Ag, Industry, and Services

4. Foreign Trade

5. Country Specific Details

Chapter 5 Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay

1. The Basics: Population, GDP, GDP per capita

2. The Macroeconomic Record

3. Economic Structure: Ag, Industry, and Services

4. Foreign Trade

5. Country Specific Details

Chapter 6 The Laggards: Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela

1. The Basics: Population, GDP, GDP per capita

2. The Macroeconomic Record

3. Economic Structure: Ag, Industry, and Services

4. Foreign Trade

5. Country Specific Details

Chapter 7 Mexico and Central America

1. The Basics: Population, GDP, GDP per capita

2. The Macroeconomic Record

3. Economic Structure: Ag, Industry, and Services

4. Foreign Trade

5. Country Specific Details

Chapter 8 Looking Toward the Future

1. A 2 or 3 track region

2. Turning around limits to growth

3. The usual drill does not apply

4. A Latin American version of success