ABSTRACT
Raúl Prebisch’s report on the Theoretical and Practical Problems of Economic Growth (United Nations 1951b; henceforth Theoretical and Practical Problems) provided the theoretical foundations of CEPAL’s contribution to economic development planning, but it has not received the same degree of attention as other documents produced by Prebisch for CEPAL during that period. It came out shortly after the publication of Alfred Kahn’s 1951 well-known article with his proposed ‘social marginal productivity’ (SMP) approach, which would spark off a debate throughout that decade (Kahn 1951; Chenery 1953; Dobb 1955 and 1956; Galenson and Leibenstein 1955; Bator 1957; Eckstein 1957; Sen 1957 and 1968). Sen (1968) elaborated on Maurice Dobb’s criticism of the view that development planning should aim at the maximization of the immediate level of aggregate output through the adoption of labour intensive techniques in labour abundant economies, as implied by Kahn’s (1951) investment allocation criterion.
