Latin American Debt and Adjustment: External Shocks and Macroeconomic Policies

The fourteen papers presented in this volume are thought-provoking studies of the economic adjustment of Latin America to the difficult external environment of the 1980s. The anthology evolved out of a group of papers presented at the Third Dominican Republic Conference on International Debt and Adjustment in 1986. A number of the papers were updated and are presented here along with new ones written especially for this collection. The debt problems of Latin America form the background for the analyses undertaken by the articles in the book. The articles go beyond description of the debt problems to offer insights on the more fundamental long-range problems facing policy makers in the region. Positive analyses into the nature of the adjustment process and insights into future institutional changes that could improve the functioning of the Latin American economies highlight the book.

The papers are divided into major topics of concern. The transmission of external shocks to the region and instability to the financial markets are covered. Fiscal constraints, labor market adjustment, exchange rates, and the political economy of adjustment as each relates to the external shocks of the 1980s are investigated. A major essay by Montague Lord shows Latin American potential to reap substantial gains by pursuing policies to encourage expansion of its resource-based comparative-advantage activities. The essays in Latin American Debt and Adjustment provide a starting point for the consideration of some of the deeper problems that need to be addressed by any meaningful attempt to improve the market-oriented economies of the region.