Industrialization in Latin America: from the “black box” to the “empty mailbox”

In this paper the author offers an alternative development strategy to the previousimport substitution inner oriented, state led one, but also to the “new orthodoxy of the 1980’s”-the neoliberal approach. This alternative is based on the experience of European countries andparticularly of the Asian Tigers, that he calls GEICs (Growth with Equity Industrializing Countries).These countries were able to develop combining high rates of growth with a reasonabledistribution of income. This “mail box” is void in Latin America. If we build a two entry matrixhaving in the lines the growth rate (low or high) and in the colons the degree of equity (bad orreasonable), and we plot the Latin American countries in this matrix, the box “high rate ofgrowth-reasonable degree of equity” will be void. If Latin America is able to fill this box, savingswill increase, technical progress will be accelerated, growth will be resumed. JEL Classification: O25; L52.