Abstract
Since the decade of the 1970s, most developing countries, and in particular Latin American economies, have adopted economic stabilisation programmes geared at the restoration of internal and external equilibrium. The causes and consequences of these disequilibria have varied from country to country and time to time; however, in most cases, the roots of these disadjustments seem to have been originated in an accelerated expansion of the money supply and of domestic credit induced by huge fiscal deficits. In the periods previous to the introduction of stabilisation programmes, in most countries, very high inflation rates, an unsustainable relation of fiscal deficit to output, serious external disequilibria as a consequence of the above, and an appreciation of the real exchange rate have been observed.
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Notes
Such a stabilisation package is typically represented by the financial programmes sponsored by the IMF. For an overview of financial programming techniques used by the IMF and a critical appraisal of its framework, see A. Buira, ‘IMF Financial Programmes and Conditionality’, Journal of Development Economics, no. 12, (1983).
For a theoretically formal and analytical representation of these effects, see J. Bilson, ‘A Dynamic Model of Devaluation’, Canadian Journal of Economics, May 1978.
See, for example, M. Obstfeld, ‘Imperfect Asset Substitutability and Monetary Policy under Fixed Exchange Rates’, Journal of International Economics, May 1980,
and M. Obstfeld, ‘Macroeconomic Policy, Exchange-Rate Dynamics and Optimal Asset Accumulation’, NBER, December 1980.
The importance of the real exchange rate and the interaction of monetary and real variables in adjustment responses to BOP imbalances is highlighted in several theoretic models contained in R. Dornbusch, Open Economy Macroeconomics, New York, Basic Books, 1980, especially Chapters 7,8,9 and 12.
See, for example, B. Balassa, ‘The Process of Industrial Development and Alternative Development Strategies’, Princeton Essays in International Finance, no. 41, (1981),
and A. Krueger, ‘Import Substitutions vs. Export Promotion’, Finance and Development, Vol. 22, no. 2, 1985.
A. Fishlow, ‘El Estado de la Ciencia Economica en America Latina’, in BID Progreso Economico y Social en America Latina, Deuda Externa: Crisis y Ajuste, Washington DC, 1985.
For a conceptual analysis on heterodox stabilisation strategies, see Roberto Marino and Federico Rubli, ‘Los Planes Heterodoxos de Estabilizacion: Sus Characteristicas y la Experiencia Redente’, Monetaria, CEMLA, Vol. 10, no. 3, 1987.
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© 1989 H. W. Singer and Soumitra Sharma
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Rubli-Kaiser, F. (1989). The Economic Adjustment Process in Latin America: a Conceptual Evaluation. In: Singer, H.W., Sharma, S. (eds) Economic Development and World Debt. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20044-3_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20044-3_21
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