Abstract
The chapter describes the theoretical and economic policy positions held during the pandemic by two diverging groups of economists in Argentina: on the one hand, the government’s economic team and associated professional and academic economists following the structuralist/heterodox school of thought; on the other hand, a group of heterogeneous, influential domestic economists adhering to more orthodox/liberalist economic and political ideas. The analysis presented here focuses on the diverging positions and reactions around three areas: (i) whether containment measures such as lockdowns were to be adopted permanently, and if they were the most appropriate; (ii) the evaluation of the economic relief policies being implemented; (iii) how to face the issue of financing under a dollar shortage.
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Notes
- 1.
The 2018 IMF loan was for US$57 billion; for further details see footnote 19.
- 2.
From –5.2% to –0.8% points of GDP between 2018 and 2019.
- 3.
It is worth noting that in 2015 the administration downgraded the post of National Health minister to that of National Health secretary, only to return its ministerial status in 2019.
- 4.
Cases rose sharply during the long wave in 2020 as well as the shorter wave in March–July 2021. As of 18 February 2022, after the Omicron variant reached the country at the start of 2022, positive cases in Argentina hit 193,918 per million people, while the death rate per million people was 2,755. Source: https://COVID19.who.int/region/amro/country/ar, accessed 22 February 2022.
- 5.
President Fernández said in an interview in April 2020 that he would prefer to have 10% more poor people than 100,000 deaths. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE3X6Uo57AI, accessed 22 February 2022.
- 6.
Data retrieved from INDEC (2021) and https://datos.gob.ar/dataset/sspm-principales-variables-ocupacionales-eph-continua-desempleo/archivo/sspm_45.2, accessed 1 March 2022.
- 7.
Data retrieved from INDEC: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos de la República Argentina, accessed 22 February 2022.
- 8.
To avoid misunderstanding, we use the adjective ‘liberalist’ throughout the text to refer to advocates of this stream of thought.
- 9.
Although the currency was inconvertible during several periods.
- 10.
- 11.
The economist commented that ‘emergency income to complement the pre-existing subsidies has been relatively effective’.
- 12.
See Unidiversidad (2021).
- 13.
For example, they wrote: ‘However, [government borrowing from the central bank] is an effective measure only if it is employed once and for all, for it cannot be sustained in time without creating further inflation’ (Neumeyer & Hevia, 2020).
- 14.
Many local heterodox economists are currently working for the national finance ministry and the Argentine central bank as well as other government-linked think tanks such as CESO, German Abdala Foundation and others (see Sect. 8.3). Further, those not working directly for the government are academically associated with the public Universities of San Martin, Moreno, Quilmes and General Sarmiento, which are all in the Greater Buenos Aires area.
- 15.
In this connection, a theoretical reflection defending the measures to mitigate COVID was presented by Eduardo Crespo (University of Moreno and University of Rio de Janeiro) and Ariel Dvoskin (University of San Martin, Argentina’s Central Bank), which backs up Agis’s position. Crespo and Dvoskin (2020) argued that healthcare is a ‘basic commodity’ in Sraffa’s terminology (Sraffa, 1960). Basic commodities enter directly or indirectly in the production of all commodities. Since economic activities require a healthy workforce, then healthcare is as ‘basic’ as energy provision for the normal functioning of the economy.
- 16.
E.g. Martin Rapetti holds that Argentina needs the domestic currency to be valued low to boost exports, and warns of the evils of fiscal expansionary measures (Sticco, 2020).
- 17.
These include both the implicit exchange rate for buying assets in pesos and selling them in dollars in foreign markets, and the black-market exchange rate.
- 18.
See https://centraldeideas.blog/administracion-de-la-liquidez-durante-la-pandemia/, accessed 22 February 2022.
- 19.
See https://www.ft.com/content/9ac4d53c-fafe-4e08-969d-d2ae927bc912, accessed 22 February 2022.
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Brondino, G., Lazzarini, A. (2022). Economists and COVID-19: The Case of Argentina. In: Lazzarini, A., Melnik, D. (eds) Economists and COVID-19. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05811-0_8
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