International Trade, Investment, Macro Policies, and History

This volume, a tribute by a group of distinguished economists to the scholarly achievements of Carlos Diaz-Alejandro, examines five areas to which he made important contributions. These economists have been close associates whose own research has been much influenced by his capacity to stimulate and innovate in a variety of subjects. Section 1, on International Trade, reflects his concern with the limits of orthodox analysis, and the need to consider an imperfect world. Section 2 treats an area in which he made early and important contributions, Foreign Investment. The papers provide simple models that have strong policy implications. The contributors to the third section agree on the gravity of the Debt Crisis, and the inability of even strong policy performance by the debtor countries to avert it. Section 4 deals with stabilization and macro-economic policies in the Latin American context. The papers are unified by the need for non-orthodox policies to cope with non-orthodox situations, a conclusion that Carlos regularly reached. The last section, on Economic History, contains a range of papers that give testimony to the breadth of Carlos' interests in this field.