Probably no region s economists have had greater public visibility or greater impact on regional and national public policy than Latin America s and no region has been more directly affected by the spread of US economics. Economists in the Americas joins a small but important comparative literature on economics as a profession and is the first comparative treatment of professional economists in the United States and Latin America. A multidisciplinary group of scholars discusses the last sixty years of shifting trends in economics in seven countries in the Western Hemisphere Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and the United States. The chapters address the history of economics in the Americas, the role of economists in politics and policy-making, economics education and competing paradigms in the field. This collection points to the interconnections among the national cases, the forging and breakdown of consensus around state and market dominance, the transnational diffusion of economic ideas and professional norms, as well as the embrace and rejection of an increasingly Americanized professional identity among Latin American economists. The book will be of interest to policymakers and scholars interested in the comparative history and sociology of economics, development, public policy, international affairs, political science and Latin American studies.

Examines differences in the rates of economic growth in Latin America and mainland North America since the seventeenth century.

Papers of the National Bureau of Economic Research conference held at Dartmouth College on May 8-9, 2009.

How America's high standard of living came to be and why future growth is under threat In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, motor vehicles, air travel, and television transformed households and workplaces. But has that era of unprecedented growth come to an end? Weaving together a vivid narrative, historical anecdotes, and economic analysis, The Rise and Fall of American Growth challenges the view that economic growth will continue unabated, and demonstrates that the life-altering scale of innovations between 1870 and 1970 cannot be repeated. Gordon contends that the nation's productivity growth will be further held back by the headwinds of rising inequality, stagnating education, an aging population, and the rising debt of college students and the federal government, and that we must find new solutions. A critical voice in the most pressing debates of our time, The Rise and Fall of American Growth is at once a tribute to a century of radical change and a harbinger of tougher times to come.

How a group of intellectuals and policymakers transformed development economics and gave Latin America a new position in the world. After the Second World War demolished the old order, a group of economists and policymakers from across Latin America imagined a new global economy and launched an intellectual movement that would eventually capture the world. They charged that the systems of trade and finance that bound the world’s nations together were frustrating the economic prospects of Latin America and other regions of the world. Through the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, or CEPAL, the Spanish and Portuguese acronym, cepalinos challenged the orthodoxies of development theory and policy. Simultaneously, they demanded more not less trade, more not less aid, and offered a development agenda to transform both the developed and the developing world. Eventually, cepalinos established their own form of hegemony, outpacing the United States and the International Monetary Fund as the agenda setters for a region traditionally held under the orbit of Washington and its institutions. By doing so, cepalinos reshaped both regional and international governance and set an intellectual agenda that still resonates today. Drawing on unexplored sources from the Americas and Europe, Margarita Fajardo retells the history of dependency theory, revealing the diversity of an often-oversimplified movement and the fraught relationship between cepalinos, their dependentista critics, and the regional and global Left. By examining the political ventures of dependentistas and cepalinos, The World That Latin America Created is a story of ideas that brought about real change.

Again and again, Latin America has seen the populist scenario played to an unfortunate end. Upon gaining power, populist governments attempt to revive the economy through massive spending. After an initial recovery, inflation reemerges and the government responds with wage an price controls. Shortages, overvaluation, burgeoning deficits, and capital flight soon precipitate economic crisis, with a subsequent collapse of the populist regime. The lessons of this experience are especially valuable for countries in Eastern Europe, as they face major political and economic decisions. Economists and political scientists from the United States and Latin America detail in this volume how and why such programs go wrong and what leads policymakers to repeatedly adopt these policies despite a history of failure. Authors examine this pattern in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru—and show how Colombia managed to avoid it. Despite differences in how each country implemented its policies, the macroeconomic consequences were remarkably similar. Scholars of Latin America will find this work a valuable resource, offering a distinctive macroeconomic perspective on the continuing controversy over the dynamics of populism.

"Filled with charts, graphs, and political cartoons, Economic Apartheid in America is an action-oriented, movement-building guide to closing the widening gap between the rich and everyone else in this country."--BOOK JACKET.