When theories don´t fit: rethinking the theories of economic development for South America. Argentina and Brazil 1945-2015

LANCIOTTI, NORMA, GARCÍA ZANOTTI, GUSTAVO, SCHORR, MARTÍN

Revue Française d´Historie Économique

L´Harmattan

Año: 2020

2427-4062

The article proposes to evaluate the influence of economic development theories on the economic performance of two Latin American countries by analyzing business elites and the role of foreign firms in two different periods of economic growth: the period of industrialization led by the State (1945-1973) and the emergency of the new global economy (1990-2016). After reviewing the main arguments of neoclassical and critical theories, we examine the evolution of the largest companies in Argentina and Brazil to identify the changes in the sectoral distribution of the activities controlled by the largest companies, their export share and the presence of foreign multinationals. We find that in the first period, economic policies incorporated elements from different theories, both neoclassical and critical, articulating the entry of foreign capital with state coordination and public investment during bottlenecks. On the contrary, economic policies initiated in the 1990s were based exclusively on neoclassical approaches that propose trade liberalization and the promotion of foreign private investment. As a result, foreign firms searched rents in public utilities and in natural resources, and involved foreignization and de-industrialization.