Reflections on the Macro-Economy of Latin American Development

Abstract

It is convenient to think of the development process as one of transition between a long epoch of agrarianism and an equally long epoch of modern growth. This transition, which used to be called the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe, represents an evolutionary view in the sense that there exist sub-phases within it which may differ for each type of DC, each characterized by a somewhat different set of behaviour patterns. While there is no inevitability about certain types of country moving along a fixed historical path, post-war experience and empirical observation permit us to conclude that Latin Americans generally pursued a particular sequence of sub-phases during their development experience which differs from that of other semi-industrial countries, such as East Asia; moreover, this difference in sub-phasing lies at the heart of the difference in bottom-line performance.