<p>Perhaps you should look up the following collection of studies, </p>

<p><a href="http://www.nber.org/books/dorn91-1" rel="nofollow"><strong>Dornbusch and Edwards (ed.), The Macroeconomics of Populism in Latin America(1991)</strong></a></p>

<p>It is freely downloadable from its official site. Here is the opening paragraph of the Editors' piece</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><em>"Latin America’s economic history seems to repeat itself endlessly, following irregular and dramatic cycles. This sense of circularity is
  particularly striking with respect to the use of populist
  macroeconomic policies for distributive purposes. Again and again, and
  in country after country, policymakers have embraced economic programs
  that rely heavily on the use of expansive fiscal and credit policies
  and overvalued currency to accelerate growth and redistribute income.
  In implementing these policies, there has usually been no concern for
  the existence of fiscal and foreign exchange constraints. After a
  short period of economic growth and recovery, bottlenecks develop
  provoking unsustainable macroeconomic pressures that, at the end,
  result in the plummeting of real wages and severe balance of payment
  difficulties. The final outcome of these experiments has generally
  been galloping inflation, crisis, and the collapse of the economic
  system. In the aftermath of these experiments there is no other
  alternative left but to implement, typically with the help of the
  International Monetary Fund (IMF), a drastically restrictive and
  costly stabilization program. The self-destructive feature of populism
  is particularly apparent from the stark decline in per capita income
  and real wages in the final days of these experiences.</em>"</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-14T22:30:01.530Z
2016-03-14T22:30:01.530Z
Alecos Papadopoulos
<p>Does it have to do with cultural factors? Ex: they were colonies of Spain and Portugal who themselves are not that great at managing their economies relative to other western European countries.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-14T19:40:45.970Z
Could you please back up your opening statement with some explanation & data. I.e. what do you mean by fare worst, which exact countries are we talking about what time frame are we talking about, etc.
(E.g. did Brazil fare worst at managing inflation than Zimbabwe between 1990 - 2010?)
Giskard
<macroeconomics><monetary-policy><inflation><government-debt><default>
Why do Latin American countries fare among the worst at managing inflation
user14706
# Why do Latin American countries fare among the worst at managing inflation

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-03-14)

Does it have to do with cultural factors? Ex: they were colonies of Spain and Portugal who themselves are not that great at managing their economies relative to other western European countries.

**Tags:** macroeconomics, monetary-policy, inflation, government-debt, default

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Could you please back up your opening statement with some explanation & data. I.e. what do you mean by fare worst, which exact countries are we talking about what time frame are we talking about, etc. (E.g. did Brazil fare worst at managing inflation than Zimbabwe between 1990 - 2010?)  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2016-03-14. Score: 3

Perhaps you should look up the following collection of studies,

[**Dornbusch and Edwards (ed.), The Macroeconomics of Populism in Latin America(1991)**](http://www.nber.org/books/dorn91-1)

It is freely downloadable from its official site. Here is the opening paragraph of the Editors' piece

> *"Latin America’s economic history seems to repeat itself endlessly, following irregular and dramatic cycles. This sense of circularity is
> particularly striking with respect to the use of populist
> macroeconomic policies for distributive purposes. Again and again, and
> in country after country, policymakers have embraced economic programs
> that rely heavily on the use of expansive fiscal and credit policies
> and overvalued currency to accelerate growth and redistribute income.
> In implementing these policies, there has usually been no concern for
> the existence of fiscal and foreign exchange constraints. After a
> short period of economic growth and recovery, bottlenecks develop
> provoking unsustainable macroeconomic pressures that, at the end,
> result in the plummeting of real wages and severe balance of payment
> difficulties. The final outcome of these experiments has generally
> been galloping inflation, crisis, and the collapse of the economic
> system. In the aftermath of these experiments there is no other
> alternative left but to implement, typically with the help of the
> International Monetary Fund (IMF), a drastically restrictive and
> costly stabilization program. The self-destructive feature of populism
> is particularly apparent from the stark decline in per capita income
> and real wages in the final days of these experiences.*"


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