Papers by Matias Vernengo
Review of Keynesian Economics, 2026
Book review
Coyuntura y Desarrollo, No 415, 2024
El viejo péndulo era un conflicto entre la posibilidad de industrializar con salaries bajos o alt... more El viejo péndulo era un conflicto entre la posibilidad de industrializar con salaries bajos o altos. El péndulo era político, no económico. A partir de la dictadura cívico-militar del 76 el péndulo pasó a ser entre dos modelos de país en lo económico.
Journal of Philosophical Economics, 2010
The current global crisis has shown the limitations of the mainstream approach. We trace the orig... more The current global crisis has shown the limitations of the mainstream approach. We trace the origins of the limitations of the dominant neoclassical views to the capital debates and to the rise to dominance of intertemporal general equilibrium. The limited use of the ArrowDebreu model, which became dominant after the capital debates, in terms of policymaking, is central to understand the persistence of policy guided by the aggregative model. We use the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a case study of this perplexing continuity of policy advice. Given our survey, we conclude that even though the economy is in the midst of the worst capitalist crisis since the Great Depression, a significant paradigmatic shift in economics is extraordinarily unlikely.
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, 2002
RESUMO Bresser-Pereira e Nakano argumentam, em seu artigo sobre crescimento com estabilidade, que... more RESUMO Bresser-Pereira e Nakano argumentam, em seu artigo sobre crescimento com estabilidade, que o ajuste fiscal já foi efetivamente realizado no Brasil. Para eles o que é necessário fazer, ao contrário das demandas ortodoxas por mais ajuste fiscal, é uma política comercial e industrial ativa para estimular as exportações, para complementar a taxa de juros mais baixa e um câmbio mais desvalorizado. É sugerido aqui que controles de capital seriam necessários para manter relativa estabilidade cambial, seguindo as ideias heterodoxas de Keynes.
Global Imbalances and Economic Development
International Journal of Political Economy, 2007
... Esteban Pérez Caldentey is an Economic Affairs Officer, Economic Commission for Latin America... more ... Esteban Pérez Caldentey is an Economic Affairs Officer, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), Santiago ... A Critical Imbalance in US Trade: The US Balance of Payments, International Indebtedness and Economic Policy. Levy Economics Institute ...
Estudos Sobre a Indeterminação de Senior Vol. 1. DSpace/Manakin Repository. ...
From Regulation to Deregulation and (Perhaps) Back: A Peculiar Continuity in the Analytical Framework
Research Papers in Economics, 2020
The rise of the regulatory state during the Gilded Age was closely associated with the developmen... more The rise of the regulatory state during the Gilded Age was closely associated with the development of Institutionalist ideas in American academia. In their analysis of the emergent regulatory envi- ronment, Institutionalists like John Commons operated with a fundamentally marginalist theory of value and distribution. This engagement is a central explanation for the ultimate ascendancy of neoclassical economics, and the limitations of the regulatory environment that emerged in the Pro- gressive Era. The eventual rise of the Chicago School and its deregulatory ambitions did constitute a rupture, but one achieved without rejecting preceding conceptions of competition and value. The substantial compatibility of the view of markets underlying both the regulatory and deregulatory periods is stressed, casting doubt about the transformative potential of the resurgent regulatory impulse in the New Gilded Age.
Challenge, 2020
An alternative method is applied to the study of nucleon-nucleon(N N) scattering phase shifts in ... more An alternative method is applied to the study of nucleon-nucleon(N N) scattering phase shifts in the framework of extended quark delocalization, color-screening model(QDCSM), where the onepion-exchange(OPE) with short-range cutoff is included.
A heterodox rereading of Bresser-Nakano
Bresser-Pereira and Nakano argue, in their article on stable growth, that the fiscal adjustment h... more Bresser-Pereira and Nakano argue, in their article on stable growth, that the fiscal adjustment has already been effectively carried out in Brazil. For them, what needs to be done, contrary to the orthodox demands for more fiscal adjustment, is an active commercial and industrial policy to stimulate exports, to complement the lower interest rate and a more devalued exchange rate. It is suggested here that capital controls would be necessary to maintain relative exchange rate stability, following Keynes' heterodox ideas.
Estudios Críticos del Desarrollo, Jul 5, 2012
Resumen. Keynes tuvo una profunda influencia en el pensamiento de Prebisch, no sólo en términos d... more Resumen. Keynes tuvo una profunda influencia en el pensamiento de Prebisch, no sólo en términos del diagnóstico acerca de los principales fallos de las economías de mercado, sino también en la necesidad de llevar a cabo políticas proactivas y anticíclicas. No obstante, Prebisch fue crítico de la obra principal de Keynes, Teoría general de la ocupación, el interés y el dinero (1936). Consideró que dicha obra estaba alejada de la realidad de las economías capitalistas. Además sostuvo que era inconsistente y no representaba en absoluto una ruptura con la teoría dominante. Las críticas de Prebisch se centraron en la teoría de interés y el multiplicador. La actitud de Prebisch en relación a Keynes puede explicarse por una diferencia en el objeto y el método de análisis. Los intereses de Prebisch se centraban en la dinámica y los ciclos, temas periféricos al mensaje y análisis central de Teoría general. Sin embargo, hay muchos puntos en común y confluencias entre ambos autores.
The surge in academic work on globalization has made several of the topics dear to authors of the... more The surge in academic work on globalization has made several of the topics dear to authors of the dependency school relevant once again. Therefore a reconsideration of dependency theory seems to be appropriate. There are at least two approaches to dependency. This paper analyzes critically their similarities, differences and limitations, in particular regarding the role of technology, and international finance in the explanation of center and periphery interactions. The evolutions of the ideas on dependency in Latin America are evaluated. The reduced relevance of strict definitions of the technological division of labor, and the theoretical problems caused by the effective industrialization of several countries in the periphery, the debt crisis, and the failure of the neoliberal agenda are also discussed. In the era of globalization and great transformations in the international economy the ‘new ’ dependency seems to be financial in nature.
Heterodox Central Banking in the Periphery
Including a Symposium on Latin American Monetary Thought: Two Centuries in Search of Originality, 2018
Traditionally, monetary policy in Latin America followed the recommendations of the missions of t... more Traditionally, monetary policy in Latin America followed the recommendations of the missions of the monetary “doctors” who defended an independent central bank and a pro-cyclical monetary policy, adhering to the automatic adjustment of the gold standard. A key function of central banks was to support fiscal stability. The effects of the Great Depression and its aftermath in the periphery countries questioned these recommendations and gave way to a shift in monetary policy. An illustrative example is provided by the creation of the Central Bank of the Argentina Republic (BCRA) under the auspices of Raul Prebisch, and the technical assistance missions of the United States Federal Reserve to several Latin American countries some of which were led by Robert Triffin. Prebisch actively participated in mission to Paraguay and the Dominican Republic bringing the experience he had acquired as director of the BCRA and the tools devised to adapt monetary policy to a changing external context a...
Book reviewMasters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics, D. Stedman Jones, Princeton University Press (2012), 432 pp., Hardback, $35.00, ISBN: 9780691151571
Social Science Journal, 2013
Interest Rates, Effective Demand, and Financial Fragility: Edward Nell and the Trieste Tradition
Growth, Distribution, and Effective Demand, 2019
From developmentalism to neoliberalism in Latin America
Investigación Económica, 2010
Hay un creciente consenso en las discusiones sobre política económica en el Brasil con relación a... more Hay un creciente consenso en las discusiones sobre política económica en el Brasil con relación a los principales precios macroeconómicos. El salario real ha crecido lentamente a partir del proceso de liberalización, la tasa de interés sigue elevada (a pesar de haber bajado) y el tipo de cambio ha tenido una tendencia general a la apreciación. Muchos analistas sugieren que esta combinación es el factor fundamental para la explixcación de las bajas tasas de crecimiento de la economía. En particular, varios analistas han demostrado preocupación por la dinámica de la deuda, y han surgerido que la solución estaría asociada a superávit primarios más elevados y, como sugiere Delfim Netto (2005), a la eliminación del déficit nominal. Para nosotros esta conclusión es incorrecta y desconsidera la relación entre el tipo de cambio, las tasas de interés y la dinámica de la deuda pública.
Globalization, a Dangerous Obsession : Latin America in the Post-Washington Consensus Era
International Journal of Political Economy, 2002
... 32, no. 4, Winter 20023, pp. 421. © 2004 ME Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 0891191... more ... 32, no. 4, Winter 20023, pp. 421. © 2004 ME Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 08911916 / 2004 $9.50 + 0.00. ALCINO F. CÂMARA NETO AND MATIAS VERNENGO Globalization, a Dangerous Obsession Latin America in the Post-Washington Consensus Era ...
Review of Radical Political Economics, 2018
The paper analyzes briefly the changing ideas on the role of money and banks from William Petty t... more The paper analyzes briefly the changing ideas on the role of money and banks from William Petty to Thomas Tooke, including the works of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx. It analyzes the role of ideas in shaping the evolution of central bank regulation. Particular importance is given to the Bank of England’s inconvertibility period, from 1797 to 1821, and the ensuing debate in shaping Robert Peel’s Bank Act of 1844, which is often seen as the birth of modern central banking. The importance of the Say’s Law, and the inexistence of an alternative theory of the determination of output, is shown to play an essential role in the policy prescriptions of the so-called Bullionist authors, who won the debates that shaped central banking practices in the nineteenth century. The paper concludes with a brief analysis of what is a central bank according to the dominant (marginalist) mainstream of the profession, and what an alternative conception based on what may be termed classical-Keyn...
Economic Notes, 2017
This paper describes some of the main alternatives to the dominant neoclassical theories of infla... more This paper describes some of the main alternatives to the dominant neoclassical theories of inflation, according to which inflation is always a monetary phenomenon. The model develops a cost-push approach, in which rising costs are mainly related to external constraints. Not only is inflation seen as resulting from balance of payments crises, but fiscal crises also are the result of the initial balance of payments crises within this framework. Fiscal deficits, and all other excess demand pressures, are absent, so that high levels of inflation are compatible with an economy that is below full employment, and stabilization is independent of fiscal adjustments. The model is then tested using a Vector Autoregression model and finds strong evidence for alternative theories of inflation over the monetarist theory. The empirical section tests both the long period (1882-2009) and the modern period (1990-2007) analyzing the impact of wages, the nominal exchange rate, the output gap and the monetary base on inflation. The results show that the exchange rate (external constraints) has been the primary cause of inflation. Wages are a causal factor in both models, and the monetary base and output gap show low causality in the long period, and ambiguous results for the modern period.
Latin American Policy, 2016
Several political and academic circles have considered microfinance to be an important tool to pr... more Several political and academic circles have considered microfinance to be an important tool to promote economic development and the reduction of poverty. It became a worldwide phenomenon, and the practice disseminated in many developing countries such as Brazil. Even as many authors sing the praises of microfinance-in particular the success in developing countries-the actual experience has fallen short. The goal in this article is to provide a critical analysis of the recent practices of microfinance in Brazil. The article also presents the general characteristics of microcredit in Brazil within the context of the broader development strategy pursued, in particular since stabilization and the inception of neoliberal policies in the mid-1990s. It is argued that microfinance plays an insidious role, making market-friendly solutions for social problems more acceptable. El microcr edito es visto en diversos medios pol ıticos y acad emicos como un instrumento importante para reducir la pobreza y promover el desarrollo econ omico. Se ha transformado en un fen omeno global y se ha diseminado en varios pa ıses en v ıas de desarrollo como Brasil. Aunque muchos han propagado el gran suceso de la microfinanza-particularmente en pa ıses menos desarrollados-los resultados son en realidad bastante pobres. El presente art ıculo presenta las caracter ısticas generales del microcr edito en Brasil en el contexto m as amplio de la estrategia de desarrollo implementada a partir de la estabilizaci on monetaria y el programa neoliberal iniciado en la d ecada de 1990. El art ıculo sugiere que la microfinanza ha jugado un papel insidioso, haciendo las soluciones neoliberales para los problemas sociales m as aceptables.
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Papers by Matias Vernengo