ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the contrasting approaches of monetarism and structuralism, the policy experiments they have spawned, and the lessons that can be extracted from them. It aims to emphasize the closed-economy aspects of the macroeconomic debate. The controversies between structuralists and monetarists reached their peak during the 1950s and 1960s. The debate is summarized in a volume edited by W. Baer and I. Kerstenetsky. Structuralist theories were based on the work of O. Sunkel and D. Seers, who stressed the crucial role of real supply and institutional factors in the initiation of inflation. The problems faced in stopping inflation, as well as the growth slowdown in a number of countries of the region, led certain orthodox economists to convert to a type of structuralism—that is, if simple structuralism is understood to blame macroeconomic problems on the structure and institutions of the economy.
