ABSTRACT
I have been one of the lucky students that have been taught by Professor Sanjaya Lall, a scholar of industrialization who dedicated his life to explaining that structural change, technological upgrading and industrial development are indeed possible. Every time he told the story of how the “Asian Tigers” (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and most recently China) industrialized, his eyes glittered. It was a powerful message for developing countries, his students and the multilateral organizations and governments that he often advised, because it implied that developing countries are not doomed to remain dependent on their comparative advantages in cheap labor and natural resources. Inspired by his lectures, I began to study the theories of late development and apply them to improve my understanding of the highly creative if perhaps not very effective attempts of Latin American countries to foster the modernization of their economies.
