The Puzzle of Latin American Economic Development / Edition 3

by Patrice Franko

Overview

Thoroughly revised and updated, this text provides the basic economic tools for students to understand the problems facing the countries of Latin America. In this third edition, Patrice Franko analyzes challenges to the neoliberal model of development and highlights recent macroeconomic changes in the region. Including charts and tables with the most current data available, the book also offers a wealth of new boxed discussions and vignettes. After a brief historical overview incorporating quantitative and theory-driven results from the new economic history, Franko builds a contemporary model of regional development. She explores the contradictions of growth, especially in the context of overcoming intractable problems of poverty, education, health, and discrimination. Franko focuses on factors of competitiveness, including labor markets, technology, and infrastructure challenges. Inviting students to view challenges through the eyes of policymakers, the text encourages a critical assessment of past and present policy choices. Updated chapters include new research on debt relief, inflation targeting, the changing role of the state, the challenge from China, chronic poverty, bottom-of-the-pyramid marketing, conditional transfer programs, and progress on the millennium development goals. Liberally interspersed with examples and case studies, the book successfully combines theory and its application in the real world. This innovative yet user-friendly text simultaneously challenges strong students while clarifying the fundamentals for novices. By exploring the difficult choices facing Latin American policymakers, the author gives readers interested in economics or in Latin American studies the conceptual means to understand the puzzle of strong, sustainable, and equitable growth in the region.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742553538
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/2007
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	712
Product dimensions:	7.09(w) x 10.14(h) x 1.29(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Patrice Franko is Grossman Professor of Economics at Colby College.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Development in Latin America: Conceptualizing Economic Change in the Region
Chapter 2: Historical Legacies: Patterns of Unequal and Unstable Growth
Chapter 3: Import Substitution Industrialization: Looking Inward for the Source of Economic Growth
Chapter 4: Latin America's Debt Crisis: The Limits of External Financing
Chapter 5: Macroeconomic Stabilization: A Critical Ingredient for Sustained Growth
Chapter 6: The Role of the State: From a Smaller to a Smarter State
Chapter 7: Financing for Development: Public and Private Capital Flows to Latin America
Chapter 8: Contemporary Trade Policy: Engine or Brakes for Growth?
Chapter 9: Policies Underpinning Growth: Productivity and Competitiveness in the Global Economy
Chapter 10: Rural Development: Sowing the Seeds of Equitable, Sustainable Growth in Latin America
Chapter 11: Poverty and Inequality: Addressing the Social Deficit in Latin America
Chapter 12: Health Policy: Investing in People's Future
Chapter 13: Education Policy: The Source of Equitable, Sustainable Growth
Chapter 14: Environmental Challenges: Internalizing the Costs of Development
Chapter 15: Lessons Learned: Cycles in Latin American Development

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This text has served as an invaluable guide to my master's level course on Latin American economic development, and it has helped to enliven class debates. It is comprehensive, concise, and beautifully written. The book offers clear definitions of numerous concepts adn economic development terms that are extremely useful and accessible for students at all levels of learning. I highly recommend it.

Kristina Lybecker

Franko’s book is the most comprehensive book available, while also providing an engaging text for students. It is an excellent stand-alone text for economic novices and a wonderful starting point for more advanced economics students.

Editorial Reviews

Franko’s book is the most comprehensive book available, while also providing an engaging text for students. It is an excellent stand-alone text for economic novices and a wonderful starting point for more advanced economics students.

Kristina Lybecker

This book is clearly written and organized. . . . It presents a wealth of detailed and illustrative data with precise definitions. . . . It is one of the best texts on the political economy of Latin America. It clearly presents and discusses the challenges and contradictions of contemporary development models in the region. . . . Highly recommend[ed] . . . for upper level undergraduate courses or graduate level courses on the development of Latin America.

The Latin Americanist

Superbly written, this book unravels the tortured history of Latin American economic development, making it comprehensible and enjoyable reading. Armed with the most current statistics and case studies . . . Franko fairly assesses successes and failures, from the import substitution policy to the state-led development and the 'radical shift' to the neoliberal experiment in the 1990s. . . . Essential.

H-Latam - Richard Salvucci

Praise for a previous edition:
This useful text . . . is a welcome addition to the growing list of texts surveying the economics of Latin America. . . . A wealth of details is provided in the author's presentation, which includes numerous charts and graphs on major issues such as privatization, trade, finance, competitiveness, and social policies.

CHOICE - James Gerber

This book is clearly written and organized. . . . It presents a wealth of detailed and illustrative data with precise definitions. . . . It is one of the best texts on the political economy of Latin America. It clearly presents and discusses the challenges and contradictions of contemporary development models in the region. . . . Highly recommend[ed] . . . for upper level undergraduate courses or graduate level courses on the development of Latin America.

June 2008 The Latin Americanist

Praise for a previous edition:
This text has served as an invaluable guide to my master's level course on Latin American economic development, and it has helped to enliven class debates. It is comprehensive, concise, and beautifully written. The book offers clear definitions of numerous concepts adn economic development terms that are extremely useful and accessible for students at all levels of learning. I highly recommend it.

From the Publisher

Praise for a previous edition:
Patrice Franko's book is engaging, it focuses on important contemporary issues, and it challenges students. This text will serve introductory students well, while also offering sufficient analytical substance and institutional detail for those with more background in economics. It clearly illustrates how economics can help us understand important issues in the region.

Carol Wise

Praise for a previous edition:
A splendid job . . . a careful, clear, and thoughtful attempt to explain 'the puzzle of Latin American development.' . . . Thoroughly up-to-date, conversant with the standard discussions, and amply buttressed by recent socioeconomic indicators in over one hundred tables. . . . Well informed, unbiased and scrupulously fair.

David Schodt

This useful text . . . is a welcome addition to the growing list of texts surveying the economics of Latin America. . . . A wealth of details is provided in the author's presentation, which includes numerous charts and graphs on major issues such as privatization, trade, finance, competitiveness, and social policies.
— James Gerber, San Diego State University

Choice

Superbly written, this book unravels the tortured history of Latin American economic development, making it comprehensible and enjoyable reading. Armed with the most current statistics and case studies . . . Franko fairly assesses successes and failures, from the import substitution policy to the state-led development and the 'radical shift' to the neoliberal experiment in the 1990s. . . . Essential.
— Richard Salvucci

H-Latam

Praise for a previous edition:
This useful text . . . is a welcome addition to the growing list of texts surveying the economics of Latin America. . . . A wealth of details is provided in the author's presentation, which includes numerous charts and graphs on major issues such as privatization, trade, finance, competitiveness, and social policies.
— James Gerber, San Diego State University

CHOICE

This book is essential for any student or policy-maker looking to solve the puzzle of economic development in Latin America. Why, after trying the full gamut of economic reforms, has the region had lackluster economic growth, frequent financial instability, persistent inequality, accentuated social conflict, and acute environmental degradation relative to other developing regions across the world? Franko’s fourth edition is a student and battle-tested guide to the history, economics, politics, and institutional factors that surround Latin American economic policy-making that equips the reader with the perspective needed to learn from the past and forge a better future.

Kevin Gallagher

This useful text. .. is a welcome addition to the growing list of texts surveying the economics of Latin America.. .. A wealth of details is provided in the author's presentation, which includes numerous charts and graphs on major issues such as privatization, trade, finance, competitiveness, and social policies.

Choice Reviews

Patrice Franko’s thorough examination of Latin America’s economic evolution in the post–Cold War era sheds light on the puzzle of hope and frustration she expertly describes. This masterly book, now in its fourth edition, remains mandatory reading for those interested in understanding the world’s most unequal region.

Paulo Sotero

This thoroughly updated edition of Patrice Franko’s text is most welcome. I have used previous editions successfully both in advanced undergraduate economics courses and in graduate-level Latin American courses drawing students from diverse disciplines, with minimal economics background. The book has just the right balance of quantitative material and engaging examples of the dilemmas of Latin American development from the perspective of its peoples.

Carmen Diana Deere

An essential book about Latin American economies.

Latin-Focus