Development Macroeconomics in Latin America and Mexico ― Essays on Monetary, Exchange Rate, and Fiscal Policies

What explains that the Latin American subcontinent, which has gone further than other developing regions in the process of economic liberalization, has had such disappointing growth performance over the past 30 years? Why do certain countries in Latin America such as Dominican Republic, Chile, and Peru demonstrate respectable growth, while Mexico and Brazil continue to struggle? In other words, why do some economies grow faster than others? Conventional explanations emphasize the role of institutional factors, human capital, or microeconomic factors, but these explanations do not address the Latin American paradox. In terms of institutions, human capital endowment, and economic liberalization, Latin American countries have been converging rapidly over the past thirty years. At the same time, growth rates after the lost decade of the 1980s have been diverging.

Development Macroeconomics in Latin America and Mexico brings the attention of academics, practitioners, and policy makers to the neglected macroeconomic factors that can account for both the unsatisfactory average growth performance of Latin American and the diversity around this average. This exciting new volume enriches the debate on the macroeconomic reform agenda that could revive the high growth rates that the region achieved between the post war period and the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s.

Jaime Ros is Professor of Economics at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and Emeritus Professor at the University of Notre Dame, USA. He specializes in development economics with special reference to Mexico and Latin America. Recent books include Rethinking Economic Development, Growth, and Institutions (OUP, 2013), Algunas Tesis Equivocadas sobre el Estancamiento Economico de Mexico (Colegio de Mexico-UNAM, 2013), and The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Economics (OUP, 2011).