The evolution of the unemployment in Argentina in the 1990s. An examination from the Neoclassical, Keynesian and Marxist approaches

JUAN EDUARDO SANTARCANGELO

Columbia University, Nueva York, USA

Conferencia; Primera Conferencia de Estudiantes de Doctorado especializados en América Latina, Columbia University; 2003

Latin Amercian History Department, Columbia University

This paper aims to analyze the evolution of the unemployment in Argentina during the 1990s according to the Neoclassical, the Keynesian and the Marxist theories. The Argentine case is especially interesting because although it was considered at the beginning of the 1990s as model of sustainable social economic transformation, this country lived in 2001 its worst economic crisis, which was characterized by a severe deterioration of the labor market conditions. The three main theoretical approaches considered have a different way of understanding the problem and make specific assumptions about the behavior of economic agents. The analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of each of these perspectives provides clues to understand the actual core of the problem.