Latin American structuralism and economic theory

Abstract

This essay suggests that there is a body of Latin American structuralist economic theory which possesses distinctive characteristics while having a family resemblance to other institutionalist schools of thought, and which is based on an original approach to economic value. The founders of structuralism conceived a systemic, multidimensional and dynamic approach. They applied it to the study of improvements in, and the social distribution of, labour productivity generated in the central economies and the effects of these on the societies of the periphery. This outlook challenges the notion of markets as self-regulating systems that return to stable equilibrium positions, presenting them rather as a quantitative expression of the national or international power status of contracting parties. Different development styles and processes progressively alter the power structure of social systems and these changes are reflected in the dynamic of relative market prices.