Why has Productivity Growth Stagnated in Most Latin American Countries since the Neo-liberal Reforms? Gabriel Palma

The author argues that the weakness of Latin America’s neo-liberal paradigm is rooted as much in its intrinsic flaws as in the particular way it has been implemented. Most politicians and economists interpreted the 1982 debt crisis as conclusive evidence that it had led the region into a cul-de-sac for state-led import substitution policies. This led to such frustration and disappointment with existing policies and institutions that it triggered a ‘rebound effect’, where the core of the discourse of the economic reforms that followed ended up simply emphasising the need to reverse as many aspects of the previous development (and political) strategies as possible.

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