Social Conflict and Populist Policies in Latin America

Jeffrey D. Sachs

No 2897, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The central hypothesis of this paper is that high income inequality in Latin America contributes to intense political pressures for macroeconomic policies to raise the incomes of lower income groups, which in turn contributes to bad policy choices and weak economic performance. The paper looks in detail at one common type of policy failure: the populist policy cycle. This particular type of Latin American policymaking, characterized by overly expansionary macroeconomic policies which lead to high inflation and severe balance of payments crises, has been repeated so often, and with such common characteristics, that it plainly reveals the linkages from social conflict to poor economic performance.

Date: 1989-03
Note: ITI IFM
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Published as Labor Relations and Economic Performance, R. Brunetta and C. Dell-Aringa (eds) Macmillan Press, 1989

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