Abstract

VITELLI, Guillermo. Five Theoretical Instruments for Considering Argentina 's Economic History After 1950. Inv. Econ [online]. 2001, vol.61, n.237, pp.115-151. ISSN 0185-1667.

Five theoretical concepts: the wave of prices, the excessive margin of protection, the model of the two breaches, the Phillips curve, and the relationship between internal interest rates and the devaluatory rhythm of the local currency, make it possible to understand the sequences and morphologies of the Argentinean economy following the Second World War, specially the ups and downs in the wellbeing of the population. These concepts help to ex­ plain the reasons for the long decline in Argentina's economy, which has resulted in the country's falling behind more successful nations. The concepts also make it possible to single out the mechanisms use to generated resources for investment, and to puzzle out the causes of the recurring cyclical crises, expressed as sudden accelerations in the levels of inflation, reductions in the rhythms of growth in productive activities, and expansions in the externa! debt. The combination of these five instruments contributes to a knowledge of the logic be­ hind the Argentine economy that followed the reversal of the agricultural exporting upsurge, by facilitating the identification of the engines and brakes of growth prevailing in Argentina after 1950. They also contribute to an understanding of the positioning and responses of the local economy to the changes in the externa! macroeconomic context, that happened after the formulation of the Bretton Woods agreements, at the end of the Second World War.