Structuralist economics is an approach to

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...

that emphasizes the importance of taking into account structural features (typically) when undertaking economic analysis. The approach originated with the work of the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA or CEPAL) and is primarily associated with its director

Raúl Prebisch Raúl Prebisch (April 17, 1901April 29, 1986) was an Argentine economist known for his contributions to structuralist economics such as the Prebisch–Singer hypothesis, which formed the basis of economic dependency theory. He became the executi ...

and Brazilian economist

Celso Furtado Celso Monteiro Furtado (July 26, 1920 – November 20, 2004) was a Brazilian economist and one of the most distinguished intellectuals of his country during the 20th century. His work focuses on development and underdevelopment and on the persi ...

. Prebisch began with arguments that economic inequality and distorted development was an inherent structural feature of the global system exchange. As such, early structuralist models emphasised both internal and external disequilibria arising from the productive structure and its interactions with the dependent relationship developing countries had with the developed world. Prebisch himself helped provide the rationale for the idea of Import substitution industrialization, in the wake of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The alleged declining terms of trade of the developing countries, the Singer–Prebisch hypothesis, played a key role in this.

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Dutt and Ros argue that structuralist economists try to identify specific rigidities, lags as well as other characteristics of the structure of developing countries in order to assess the way economies adjust and their responsiveness to development policies. A normal assumption within this approach is that the price mechanism fails * as an equilibrating mechanism, * to deliver steady growth, * to produce a "desired" income distribution. Nixson reports Bitar's argument that there had become a broad consensus on what amounted to the neostructuralist approach. This included the recognition of: * the importance of political and institutional factors in the analysis of economic problems. * of the need to raise the level of domestic saving in order to raise the rate of investment given that external sources of finance are likely to be hard to come by * inflation as a "social phenomenon" requiring for its elimination social, psychological and political-institutional changes, as well as orthodox monetary and fiscal policies. * the false nature of dilemmas between for example

ISI ISI or Isi may refer to: Organizations * Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a classical conservative organization focusing on college students * Ice Skating Institute, a trade association for ice rinks * Indian Standards Institute, former name of ...

and EOI — planning and the market — agriculture and industry. * the need to strengthen the productive and technological base. * the importance of trying to improve the terms on which countries are integrated into the global economy and to improve international competitiveness. * structural adjustment as only one component of structural change. More recent contributions to structuralist economics have highlighted the importance of institutions and distribution across both productive sectors and social groups. These institutions and sectors may be incorporated macroeconomic or multisectoral models. At the macroeconomic level modern structuralists would trace the origins of their approach to Kalecki's ''Problems of Financing Economic Development in a Mixed Economy''. FitzGerald’s version of this model of an industrializing economy has three commodity markets (food, manufactures and capital goods), foreign trade and income distribution which underpin the specification of a financial-sector with savings, investment, fiscal and monetary balances. For multisectoral models Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs) (an extension to input-output tables) are often used. Lance Taylor has provided both a technical introduction to a form of structuralist economics and critique of more mainstream approaches.Taylor, L (2004) Reconstructing Macroeconomics: Structuralist Proposals and Critiques of the Mainstream, Harvard University Press.

New structural economics

New structural economics is an economic development strategy developed by World Bank Chief Economist Justin Yifu Lin. The strategy combines ideas from both

neoclassical economics Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics in which the production, consumption and valuation (pricing) of goods and services are observed as driven by the supply and demand model. According to this line of thought, the value of a good ...

and structural economics.

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{{Schools of economic thought Development economics Schools of economic thought

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New structural economics

See also

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