The Origins of Structuralism

H.W. Arndt. Modern Political Economy and Latin America. Eds. Jeffry Frieden,
Manuel Pastor Jr., and Michael Tomz. Westview Press, 2000: 5-9.

Introduction

In his recent book on economic development, I.M.D. Little distinguishes two broad categories of development economics. He calls them ‘neoclassical economics’ and ‘structuralism’.

“The structuralist sees the world as inflexible. Change is inhibited by obstacles, bottlenecks and constraints. People find it hard to move or adapt, and resources tend to be stuck. In economic terms, the supply of most things is inelastic. Such general inflexibility was thought to apply particularly to LDC’s.... Entrepreneurs were lacking; and communications were poor.... This alleged inflexibility was married to the evident fact that the production structure of developing countries was very different from that of developed countries. To achieve development, it had to be changed rapidly.... The structuralist view of the world provides a reason for distrusting the price mechanism and for trying to bring about change in other ways. If supplies and demands are very inelastic large price changes are needed to achieve small quantitative adjustments. Large price changes are disturbing, both directly and also because they result in changes in income distribution.... If the losers are powerful, they may... be able to resist the change through organized industrial or political action... Structuralism primarily seeks to provide a reason for managing change by administrative action.”

The purpose of this article is to explore further the origins of structuralism, both in the broader sense and the more specific context of Latin American structuralist theories of inflation, and the links between them.

According to the Little quotation,

Item 0 - differences between the more and the less developed countries are a matter of degree, not of substance

É correto afirmar. Em modelos de equações simultâneas:

Item 1 - se a condição de ordem for satisfeita, a condição de posto também será satisfeita.

The Latin American Structuralist Theory of Inflation

Inflation had bedeviled economic policy in most Latin American countries for many years, and structuralist-type arguments had been put forward by opponents of liberal economic policies from time to time, in Brazil as early as 1949. But it was primarily the experience of Chile, the most conspicuous case of chronic inflation, that gave rise to the formulation of a structuralist theory of inflation. The Chilean peso had depreciated externally and domestically in all but 15 of the preceding 80 years, at annual rates which rose from around 20% in the 1940s to well over 50% in the mid-1950s. In the latter half of 1955, the Chilean Government decided on yet another effort at stabilization and employed a group of American consultants, the Klein-Saks Mission, to prepare a stabilization program. It was this, reinforced by broadly ‘monetarist’ stabilization policies recommended by the IMF in Argentina and Chile in 1958/9, that sparked off the monetarist-structuralist controversy.

The crux of the argument (in the preceding paragraph) is that:

Item 3 - Chile had employed a group of American consultants

Considerando a função !$ f(x,y)=2\cdot x^2+x \cdot y^2+y^2 !$, assinale V (verdadeiro) ou F (falso):

Item 1 - !$ (0,0) !$ é ponto de mínimo de !$ f !$ no plano !$ \mathbb{R}^2 !$;

Um monopolista cujos custos de produção são dados por !$ c(q)=q^2+100 !$ defronta-se com a demanda de mercado !$ p=A-3q !$, em que A > 0 é uma constante. É correto afirmar:

Item 4 - O peso morto do monopólio quando A = 48 é 36.

Considerando a função !$ f(x,y)=2\cdot x^2+x \cdot y^2+y^2 !$, assinale V (verdadeiro) ou F (falso):

Item 0 - !$ (0,0) !$ é ponto de mínimo de !$ f !$ no círculo !$ x^2+y^2 \le 1 !$;

Seja X uma variável aleatória normalmente distribuída com média !$ \mu !$ e variância conhecida !$ \sigma^2=1 !$, da qual se obtém a amostra aleatória !$ X_1, X_2, ..., X_n !$ (com n observações). É correto afirmar que:

Item 2 - A probabilidade de o intervalo de confiança !$ [\overline{X}-1,96/\sqrt{n},\overline{X}+1,96/\sqrt{n}] !$ conter a média amostral é de 95%.

Considere um modelo de Agente-Principal em que o último contrata um vendedor para seu produto. Se o vendedor esforçar-se muito, a receita das vendas será R$ 100, com probabilidade 0,8; R$ 50, com probabilidade 0,2; e a utilidade do vendedor será !$ \sqrt{w}-4 !$. Caso o vendedor se esforce pouco, a receita de vendas será R$ 100, com probabilidade 0,4; R$ 50, com probabilidade 0,6; e a utilidade do vendedor será !$ \sqrt{w} !$ (w é o salário). O vendedor sempre pode ter a utilidade !$ u_0=1 !$ se for trabalhar numa outra profissão que não seja a de vendas. O Principal preocupa-se em maximizar seu lucro esperado, dado pela receita de vendas menos o custo. Assuma que o Principal não consiga observar o nível de esforço do vendedor, mas apenas as vendas. É correto afirmar:

Item 0 - O custo, para o Principal, de induzir o vendedor a esforçar-se menos será 1.

Em relação à teoria da produção, analise a seguinte questão:

Item 2 - Uma firma opera com duas plantas cujos custos são !$ c_1(y_1)=y_1^2+45 !$ e !$ c_2(y_2)=3y_2^2+20 !$, respectivamente. !$ y_1 !$ e !$ y_2 !$ são as quantidades produzidas. Se !$ y_1 + y_2 = 12 !$, a produção da segunda planta, !$ y_2 !$, será igual a 3.

The Doctrine of Market Failure

In the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, socialist and other critics of capitalism condemned it chiefly on two grounds. First, that it was unjust and exploitative. Secondly, that it was unstable, prone to crises and doomed to collapse. Rarely if ever, was capitalism criticized on the ground that its quintessential mechanism of market forces operating through the price system fails to work. This third line of criticism, which may be called the doctrine of market failure, was developed, chiefly in Britain, in the 1930s and 1940s, though traces of it can of course be found earlier in many places.

Socialist critics of capitalism condemn it on the grounds that it

Item 1 - doesn’t function properly,