The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Economics

Abstract

Abstract Latin America has been central to the main debates on development economics, ranging from the relationships between income inequality and economic growth, and the importance of geography versus institutions in development, to debates on the effects of trade, trade openness, and protection on growth and income distribution. Despite increasing interest in the region, there are few English language books on Latin American economics. This Handbook, organized into five parts, aims to fill this gap. Part I looks at long-term issues, including the institutional roots of Latin America's underdevelopment; the political economy of policy making; the rise, decline, and re-emergence of alternative paradigms; and the environmental sustainability of the development pattern. Part II considers macroeconomic topics, including the management of capital account booms and busts, the evolution and performance of exchange rate regimes, the advances and challenges of monetary policies and financial development, and the major fiscal policy issues confronting the region, including a comparison of Latin American fiscal accounts with those of the OECD. Part III analyses the region's economies in global context, particularly the role of Latin America in the world trade system, and the effects of dependence on natural resources (characteristic of many countries of the region) on growth and human development. It reviews the trends of foreign direct investment, and the opportunities and challenges raised by the emergence of China as buyer of the region's commodities and competitor in the world market.

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