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Economics and politics sculpting the Colombian economy: the case of national accounts

Diego Alejandro Almonacid Lovera ()

No 18810, Econógrafos, Escuela de Economía from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID

Abstract: History is a non-linear process, full of contingent events that set the conditions which brought us, and our institutions, to where we are today. This paper examines two possible conditions in Colombia that may have influenced the creation of the National Administrative Department of Statistics: a concentrated centralist political power and a growing participation of economists in state positions. This work provides a historical and theoretical framework grounded on Alain Desrosieres’ analysis of the implication of an autocratic political power and the need for national accounts on the interaction of economists with the real world, based on abstract concepts. Likewise, I examine some historical events in the light of Desrosieres’ analysis that occurred in the early years of Colombia’s National Administrative Department of Statistics, specifically, the ‘50s and ‘60s decades. This paper concludes that both a concentrated centralist political power and a growing economists’ enrolment in positions of power may have served as conditions fostering the appearance of the department in charge of the Colombian national accounts. *** La historia es un proceso no lineal lleno de eventos contingentes que establecen las condiciones que nos llevaron a nosotros, y a nuestras instituciones, al lugar donde nos encontramos actualmente. Este artículo examina dos posibles condiciones que en Colombia pueden haber influido a la creación del Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE): un poder político centralista concentrado y una creciente participación de economistas en puestos estatales. Este trabajo ofrece un marco histórico y teórico basado en el análisis de Alain Desrosieres sobre la implicación de un poder político autocrático y la necesidad de cifras nacionales en la interacción que tienen los economistas con el mundo real, a partir de conceptos abstractos. Asimismo, examino algunos hechos de la historia colombiana a la luz del análisis de Desrosieres ocurridos en los primeros anos de existencia del DANE, específicamente en las décadas de los 50 y 60. Este trabajo concluye que tanto un poder político centralista concentrado como una creciente participación de economistas en posiciones de poder podrían haber servido como condiciones que propiciaron la aparición del departamento encargado de las cuentas nacionales colombianas.

Keywords: DANE; Colombia; Autocracy; Economic discipline; Technocracy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B25 B4 D02 D73 N01 N46 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14
Date: 2021-02-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hme
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000176:018810

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