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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.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction
1. The Promise of Latin America
1. Land
2. People
3. Resources
2. Latin America as a Relative Failure: You Aren't in East Asia
3. History Matters
1. History
2. The Post WW II mistake
3. Recovery
4. The Continuation of Economic Failure
1. Education
2. Infrastructure
3. Social Issues
3. Structural Change
5. The Details
1. ABM
2. The rest of South America
3. Central America
Chapter 2. A Brief Economic History
1. The Dismal History
1. The Colonial Legacy
2. Post-Independence Losses
3. What could have happened: The Golden Age
4. Wars and Depression
5. Debt as a regional habit
2. The Wrong Turn
1. Import Substitution Industrialization
2. Economic Isolation as a choice
3. Subsidies to Industry
4. Economic Rents and Inequality
3. The Predictable Collapse
1. The 1970s
2. Debt Shocks
3. Exchange Rate Shocks
4. Macroeconomic Instability
5. The way out: The Brady Plan
4. The New Normal
1. Macroeconomic Stability
2. 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
About the author
Cesar M. Rodriguez, Department of Economics, Portland State University, USA;
W. Charles Sawyer, Texas Christian University, USA
