This collection presents the difficult challenges of the new economic
era as well as a set of alternative economic policies for managing the
open Latin American economies of the early twenty-first century. Ideas
that were removed from the reform agenda over the past two decades are
seen as critical to the improved economic and social performance that
liberalization has so far failed to produce. These ideas include a role
for counter-cyclical macroeconomic policies, including restrictions on
capital mobility; active productive sector and technological development
policies; and the need to pay greater attention not only to social
policies, but also to the links between economic policies and social
outcomes, in order to guarantee a desirable social performance. This
collection sheds new light on issues that were largely overlooked during
the reform period, and that must be faced squarely to overcome the
deficiencies that Latin America has faced during its phase of
liberalization and its dismal economic performance since the Asian
crisis.