Washington Consensus

WASHINGTON

CONSENSUS

International Political Economy

POSC 128 3:00-4:30 MW Daniel Alantraca

Renee Dominique Rodelas

Justin Leon Villarante

LATIN AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT

1930s 1970s

- Latin America (esp. Brazil and Mexico)

- Short term success

- Long term failure

Country 1960 1975 1975 - 1989

Brazil 4.57% 1.27%

Mexico 3.37% 0.76%

per capita GDP growth rates


Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI)

Replace imports with local production:

State direction of investment and production

Tariffs, quotas and trade barriers

Infant industries

Logic: Disengagement Juan Peron President of Argentina (1946-1955)

Early adopter of ISI


Problems with ISI

Regulation

Efficiency of infant industries

High cost of imported goods

Oil Crisis

Debt Crisis Celso Furtado and Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2004)

Furtado is widely credited as one of the founders of ISI

THE WASHINGTON CONSENSUS

Term coined by John Williamson in 1980

Basic reforms envisioned by the World Bank, IMF

and US Treasury

Department

Rejection of ISI

Initial focus on Latin America, but expands.

When I first formulated the

Washington Consensus, it

really wasnt as a prescription of

development. It was a list of

policies that I

claimed were widely held in Washington to

be widely desirable in

Latin America.


Emphasis on a macroeconomic (particularly fiscal) discipline, a market economy and openness to the world economy (at least with

respect to trade and foreign direct investments).

Privatize state

enterprise

Reduce govt

regulation

Control inflation

Keep money supply tight

Set prices free

Foreign investment will

flow in and produce

prosperity, creating

development.

THE TEN ELEMENTS OF THE WASHINGTON CONSENSUS

Fiscal discipline Public

expenditure priorities

Tax reform Interest rate liberalization

Competitive exchange rate

Trade liberalization

Liberalization of inflows of

foreign direct investment (FDI)

Privatization

Deregulation Secure property

rights


1. FISCAL DISCIPLINE

Economic stability as foundation for economic growth.

Price stability essential for economic stability.

Price stability undermined by large budget deficits (through inflation).

Therefore, establishing fiscal discipline is essential.

Inflation is the general decline in the purchasing value of money;

a general increase in the price of goods.


2. REDIRECTION OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURE PRIORITIES toward fields

offering both high economic returns and the potential to improve

income distribution such as primary health care, primary

education and infrastructure

Original formulation: Cut public spending across the board

Reformulation: Redirect public spending in a pro-poor, pro-

growth way.

Non-merit subsidies: cannot be rationalized either in terms of

offsetting externalities or improving income distribution.


3. TAX REFORM

Broaden tax base

Cut marginal tax rates


Liberalization of

4. INTEREST RATES: should ideally be market-determined

6. TRADE RULES

7. FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT: by reducing barriers

9. DEREGULATION: abolition of regulations that impede the entry of

new firms or restrict competition (except in the areas of safety,

environment and finance)

Economic Liberalization: A general reduction in the role of the

government in the economy, generally encompassing reducing

barriers to trade, foreign direct investment and broader state

regulation.

5. COMPETITIVE EXCHANGE RATES


8. PRIVATIZATION 10. PROTECTION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS

export growth as key to economic growth cheaper exports; more expensive imports

CRITIQUES OF THE CONSENSUS

Former Chief Economist (WB) Joseph Stiglitz

When the IMF decides to assist a country, it dispatches a "mission" of economists. These economists frequently lack extensive experience in the country; they are more likely to have firsthand knowledge of its five-star hotels than of

the villages that dot its countryside. They work hard, poring over numbers deep into the night. But their task is impossible. In a period of days or, at most, weeks, they

are charged with developing a coherent program sensitive to the needs of the country. Needless to say, a

little number-crunching rarely provides adequate insights into the development strategy for an entire nation.



Even worse, the number-crunching isn't always that good. The mathematical models the IMF uses are

frequently flawed or out-of-date. Critics accuse the institution of taking a cookie-cutter approach to

economics, and they're right. Country teams have been known to compose draft reports before visiting. I heard stories of one unfortunate incident when team members

copied large parts of the text for one country's report and transferred them wholesale to another. They might have

gotten away with it, except the "search and replace" function on the word processor didn't work properly, leaving the original country's name in a few places.

Oops



It's not fair to say that IMF economists don't care about the citizens of developing nations. But the older men who staff the fund--and they are overwhelmingly older men--

act as if they are shouldering Rudyard Kipling's white man's burden. IMF experts believe they are brighter, more

educated, and less politically motivated than the economists in the countries they visit. In fact, the

economic leaders from those countries are pretty good--in many cases brighter or better-educated than the IMF staff, which frequently consists of third-rank students from

first-rate universities. (Trust me: I've taught at Oxford University, MIT, Stanford University,

Yale University, and Princeton University, and the IMF almost never

succeeded in recruiting any of the best students.)

Washington Consensus

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