Was Latin America too rich to prosper? Structural and political obstacles to export‐led industrial growth

Abstract

This essay explores the divergence in economic policy and performance between East Asia and Latin America. It offers a typology of explanations from the political economy literature. Evidence is presented for an explanation focused upon the relative size of the income sacrifice entailed in the competitive export of simple manufactures. In the 1960s, Latin American countries would have faced massive, politically unthinkable currency devaluations, had they sought to compete with East Asia. Thus Latin American dependency in the post‐war period has been more complex than often supposed. The essay ends with thoughts on export‐led industrialisation in indebted Latin America.

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