Abstract
Prebisch was concerned with four stylized facts of commodity-exporting middle- income countries: (a) failure to ‘catch-up’; (b) recurrent balance of payments disequilibrium; (c) unstable and deteriorating terms of trade; and (d) persistent unemployment. At the core of Prebisch’s analysis lies his differentiation of the economic and export structures of the centre and periphery. Those of the centre were seen as homogeneous and diversified, those of the periphery as heterogeneous and over-specialized. Prebisch associates the second and third problems above primarily with export over-specialization (too few homogeneous, unbranded and price-volatile commodities), and the first and fourth with structural heterogeneity (which hindered industrialization).
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Palma, J.G. (2018). Prebisch, Raúl (1901–1986). In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1719
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1719
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