ABSTRACT
This research subject is of utmost relevance for countries and regions that are usually seen as net importers of original ideas created abroad. Notwithstanding the capacity to build up creative thinking in Latin American countries, especially as regards original contributions to the theories and policies of economic development, there is plenty of evidence of the richness of the procedures involved in the critical adaptation and appropriation of economic knowledge. The scholarly debates on the diffusion in many Latin American countries of Enlightenment ideas on economic reform, Adam Smith’s political economy, List’s system of national political economy, or Keynesian economic policies – to name just the obvious and well-studied cases – offer multiple reasons for claiming the relevance of studies of this kind in the dissemination of economic thought.1
