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CEPAL and ISI: reconsidering the debates, policies and outcomes

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  • Lewis, Colin M.

Abstract

Reappraising cepalina import-substituting industrialisation (ISI) means exploring strategies associated with diagnoses and policy prescriptions, recognising that ideas and processes changed over time, that there was divergence between original diagnoses of development problems and policy interventions designed to resolve them, and that some strategies and outcomes attributed to ECLA were distant from original propositions. Section one locates the ECLA project within a stylised chronology. The second focusses on two sub-periods: (i) proto-cepalismo; (ii) the classic phase of cepalismo. The third re-evaluates the project, challenging contemporary and current opinions. The main findings emphasise continuities between the two sub-periods, arguing that current vilification of the project by the left and the right is/was myopic. Industrial growth was underway in some economies by/before the end of the nineteenth century; industrialisation may have occurred in some countries before 1940; and what had been achieved by the 1990s in parts of the continent was considerable.

Suggested Citation

  • Lewis, Colin M., 2019. "CEPAL and ISI: reconsidering the debates, policies and outcomes," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 127350, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:127350
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    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/127350/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • N16 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • L52 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Industrial Policy; Sectoral Planning Methods

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