domingo, 30 de junio de 2013

Fundamental Concepts: David Ricardo.

Fundamental  Concepts: David Ricardo



The strongest features of his concepts are:

The discovery and use of complex machinery, a tendency to prolong the working day, the growing incorporation of women's work and child in the production factory.

On the other hand stresses especially the theory of comparative advantage, which advocates the benefits of international trade, also gives the idea that states that the real wages of workers will remain close to subsistence level even if attempts to increase them, known as iron law of wages, in turn based on the ideas of an English economist, from the classical school of thought, considered the father of demography named Thomas Malthus.

Value theory
Ricardo's most famous work is his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817). Ricardo opens the first chapter with a statement of the labour theory of value. Later in this chapter, he demonstrates that prices do not correspond to this value. He retained the theory, however, as an approximation. The labour theory of value states that the relative price of two goods is determined by the ratio of the quantities of labour required in their production. His labour theory of value, however, required several assumptions:

1.    both sectors have the same wage rate and the same profit rate;
2.    the capital employed in production is made up of wages only;
3.    the period of production has the same length for both goods.

Ricardo himself realized that the second and third assumptions were quite unrealistic and hence admitted two exceptions to his labour theory of value:
1.    production periods may differ;
2.    the two production processes may employ instruments and equipment as capital and not just wages, and in very different proportions.

Ricardo continued to work on his value theory to the end of his life.

Rent

Ricardo is responsible for developing theories of rent, wages, and profits. He defined rent as "the difference between the produce obtained by the employment of two equal quantities of capital and labor." The model for this theory basically said that while only one grade of land is being used for cultivation, rent will not exist, but when multiple grades of land are being utilized, rent will be charged on the higher grades and will increase with the ascension of the grade. As such, Ricardo believed that the process of economic development, which increased land utilization and eventually led to the cultivation of poorer land, benefited first and foremost the landowners because they would receive the rent payments either in money or in product.

In a careful analysis of the effects of different forms of taxation, Ricardo concludes in chapters 10 and 12 that a tax on land value, equivalent to a tax on the land rent, was the only form of taxation that would not lead to price increases; it is paid by the landlord, who is not able to pass it on to a tenant.

He stated that the poorest grade land in use has no (land) rent and so pays no land value tax; as prices are determined at this marginal site for the whole economy, prices will not be increased by a land value tax. His analysis distinguishes between rent of (unimproved) land and rent associated with capital improvements such as buildings.

Trade theory and policy: Protectionism
Like Adam Smith, Ricardo was also an opponent of protectionism for national economies, especially for agriculture. He believed that the British "Corn Laws"—tariffs on agriculture products—ensured that less-productive domestic land would be harvested and rents would be driven up. (Case & Fair 1999, pp. 812, 813). Thus, the surplus would be directed more toward feudal landlords and away from the emerging industrial capitalists. Since landlords tended to squander their wealth on luxuries, rather than investments, Ricardo believed that the Corn Laws were leading to the stagnation of the British economy. Parliament repealed the Corn Laws in 1846.

Comparative advantage
International trade attracted much attention from the burgeoning time of economics. Most of the economists who wrote between 1500 and 1750 advocated what is now called Mercantilism. It proposed to increase export and decrease import in order that the state can accumulate precious metals. Mercantilists thought that the plenty of money metal makes country rich. Adam Smith opposed to this idea and preached the gains from trade.

Although Smith preached free trade, he could not show when and how the trade is profitable. It was Ricardo who made it clear by the logic what is now called comparative advantage. His numerical example is given as follows:

Labor necessary to the production
Country \ Product       Cloth        Wine  
England                          100             120
Portugal                          90             80

Paul Samuelson called these numbers the "four magic numbers". In spite of the fact that Portuguese could produce both cloth and wine with less amount of labor, Ricardo showed that both countries have merits to trade with each other. What determines the direction of trade is not the absolute advantage in the production of goods but the ratio of labor inputs necessary to produce products, thus the denomination of "comparative advantage."

David Ricardo's ideas had a tremendous influence on later developments in economics. US economists rank Ricardo as the second most influential economic thinker, behind Adam Smith, prior to the twentieth century.

With his highly logical arguments, he has become the theoretical father of the classical political economy. Schumpeter coined an expression Ricardian vice, which indicates that rigorous logic does not provide a good economic theory.[18] This criticism applies also to most neoclassical theories, which make heavy use of mathematics, but are, according to him, theoretically unsound, because the conclusion being drawn does not logically follow from the theories used to defend it.

Reference

Case, Karl E.; Fair, Ray C. (1999), Principles of Economics (5th ed.), Prentice-Hall,
Samuel Hollander (1979)). The Economics of David Ricardo. University of Toronto Press.
G. de Vivo (1987). "Ricardo, David," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 4, pp. 183–98
Samuelson, P. A. (2001). "Ricardo, David (1772–1823)," International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, pp. 13,330–13,334. Abstract.

JEROME BENTHAM: FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS ABOUT ECONOMY

 Fundamental Concepts: Jerome Bentham



Bentham's time, are the times of the industrial revolution, wars of independence and the formation of the nascent Latin American states. From the standpoint of legal and economic is the exponent of the rational mind state and mercantile bourgeois ideology, inspired by a practical economic enlightened individualism. 

In The Psychology of Economic Man Bentham ontological vision is not Aristotle's conception of happiness metaphysics but earthly happiness, which is achieved to the extent that access to wealth, money, and in this task the State, laws, the economy must play their role to ensure the safety of Social Welfare. Bentham proclaimed Happiness is the 'greatest happiness of the greatest number which gives the ex tent of right and wrong. 

The principle of autopreferencia, ie "the interest of the very consideration prevails over all others combined. The happiness of the greatest number as a measure of right and wrong, is the result of the single sum regardless of social solidarity. According to the author the psychology of economic man is motivated by the interest in the possession of things or property and causes happiness, desire, hope, aversion to pain, the action, the will and inclination. 

Interest is the impulse that moves the person to action, which is based on the means to achieve their goals. 

Interests, will and action is the mechanical triad humans to reach happiness. However, the relationship is not mechanical, it requires incentives or stimuli, to reach the service of others. This led to the field, is of great significance in occupational psychology. 

By the principle of self-esteem, the more urgent is the need felt by a man to gain the kindness and good will of others, more energetic and strong will their efforts to get them, and if the need is less, efforts will be less intense. Being cautious means being carrier and defender of the principle of autopreferencia and estimation. 

To exercise the principle of autopreferencia basis of self-preservation is essential to the work, hard work and love of work, through which wealth is reached, in this sense unproductive leisure Bentham rejects the material and intellectual field. Never any human group is determined by other considerations than your concept of what is, to a maximum degree, beneficial to their interests purely self-respect. 

As if there were no such qualities like selflessness, philanthropy, or the disposition to self-sacrifice, the entire human species ", the author is convinced that" what prevails among men is the habit of autopreferencia, whose influence is powerful, steady, uniform, permanent and widespread human body.
 
In Bentham is more raw exposure advocacy of money as the only source of happiness. In real life the richest men are not necessarily happier, nor men who work harder, necessarily those who make more money. For Bentham as noted above money is the source of the greatest happiness which is equivalent to profit. Its design is essential arithmetic money in political economy. For him the maximum equality exists only in physics, among men equality refers only practicable, which can be expressed in the law. Equality requires that wages be raised to the maximum work.For Bentham the interest of the community is one of the more general expressions can be found in the phraseology of morals, it is not surprising that its meaning is often lost. 

When has a meaning, it is this. The community is a fictitious body, composed of individuals who are treated as if they were its members. The interest of the community then what is? - The sum of the interests of various members that make up 

It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual. He says things that promotes an interest, or that is in the interest of the individual, when it tends to increase the sum total of his pleasures: or, what comes to the same thing, to diminish the sum total of their sentences » 

Bentham conceived that society should be governed by a set of laws or Pannomio, will of a person or people, not the will of popular sovereignty. The government and laws should ensure universal security through the production of materials, so as to ensure security, subsistence and equality. The provident principle aims security, securing livelihoods, maximization of wealth and high inequality.  

The purpose of civil and criminal laws to ensure the safety of property.Laws need to combat crimes against people and crimes against national wealth. It is closely articulated legal system of political economy. 

The positive conception of Bentham in relation to politics and morality is based on research based on experimentation and observation, states in this regard that "a theory, indeed, it is not good to your specifications while not receiving, in his chance, confirmation of experience. 

Betham economic thought, embodies more raw pragmatism mercantilist mentality - capitalist, at a time of economic history that this system is being developed as the rationalist modernization model in England. 

Bentham, Jeremy. Philosophy of Economic Science.Bentham, Jeremy. Economic writings. Selection and foreword by W. Stark. Economic Culture Fund. Mexico, 1965.

Reference for his Philosophy
......................................

La época de Bentham, son los tiempos de la revolución industrial, de las guerras independentistas y la formación de los nacientes estados latinoamericanos. Desde el punto de vista jurídico y económico es el exponente de la mentalidad racional del estado y la ideología burguesa mercantilista, inspirado en un individualismo ilustrado económico práctico.

En La Psicología del hombre económico la visión ontológica de Bentham no es la concepción aristotélica de la felicidad metafísica, sino la felicidad terrena, que se logra en la medida que se accede a la riqueza, al dinero, y en esta tarea el Estado, las leyes, la economía deben cumplir su función de velar por la seguridad del Bienestar Social. La felicidad que proclama Bentham, es la «mayor felicidad del mayor número lo que da la me dida de lo justo y lo injusto.

El principio de autopreferencia, es decir, «el interés de la propia consideración predomina sobre todos los demás en conjunto. La felicidad del mayor número como medida de lo justo y lo injusto, es resultante de la sumatoria individual independientemente de la solidaridad social. Según el autor la sicología del hombre económico se halla animada por el interés por la posesión de cosas o bienes y le produce la felicidad, el deseo, la esperanza, la adversión al dolor, la acción, la voluntad y la inclinación.

El interés es el impulso que mueve a la persona a la acción, quien se apoya en los medios para lograr sus objetivos.
Interés, voluntad y acción es la triada mecánica en los seres humanos para llegar a la felicidad. Sin embargo la relación no es mecánica, se requiere de los incentivos o estímulos, para alcanzar el servicio de los demás. Esto llevado al campo de trabajo, es de gran significado en la sicología laboral.

Por el principio de propia estimación, mientras más urgente es la necesidad que siente un hombre de obtener la bondad y la buena voluntad de los demás, más enérgicos y firmes serán sus esfuerzos para conseguirlas, y si la necesidad es menor, los esfuerzos serán menos intensos. Ser prudente, implica ser portador y defensor del principio de autopreferencia y estimación.

Para ejercitar el principio de la autopreferencia base de la propia conservación es indispensable el trabajo, la laboriosidad y el amor al trabajo, por medio de los cuales se alcanza la riqueza, en este sentido Bentham rechaza el ocio improductivo en el campo material e intelectual.
Jamás ningún grupo humano está determinado por ninguna otra consideración que no sea su concepto de lo que es, en un máximo grado, beneficioso para sus intereses puramente de propia estimación.

Como si no existieran tales cualidades como el desinterés, la filantropía, o la disposición hacia la abnegación, en toda la especie humana», el autor se halla convencido que «lo que prevalece entre los hombres es el hábito de la autopreferencia, cuya influencia es poderosa, constante, uniforme, permanente y más generalizada ente la humanidad

En Bentham se encuentra la exposición más cruda de apología del dinero como única fuente de felicidad. En la vida real los hombres más ricos no necesariamente son los más felices, ni los hombres que trabajan más duro, necesariamente son los que ganan más dinero. Para Bentham como se anotó anteriormente el dinero es la fuente de la mayor felicidad que es equivalente a utilidad. Su concepción es la aritmética del dinero esencial en la economía política. Para él la máxima igualdad no existe sino en la física, entre los hombres se habla únicamente de igualdad practicable, que se puede expresar en la ley. La igualdad requiere que el salario del trabajo sea elevado al máximo.
Para Bentham el interés de la comunidad es una de las expresiones más generales que pueden encontrarse en la fraseología de la moral; no es extraño que su significado se pierda a menudo.

Cuando tiene un significado, es éste. La comunidad es un cuerpo ficticio, compuesto de personas individuales que están consideradas como si fueran sus miembros. El interés de la comunidad ¿entonces qué és? - la suma de los intereses de distintos miembros que la componen

Es en vano hablar del interés de la comunidad, sin comprender lo que es el interés del individuo. Se dice de una cosas que promueve el interés, o que es por el interés del individuo, cuando tiende a aumentar la suma total de sus placeres: o, lo que viene a ser lo mismo, a disminuir la suma total de sus penas»

Bentham, concibe que la sociedad debe estar regida por un conjunto de leyes o Pannomio, voluntad de una persona o personas, no de la voluntad de la soberanía popular. El gobierno y las leyes deben garantizar la seguridad universal, mediante la producción de materiales, de tal manera que se garantice la seguridad, la subsistencia e igualdad. El principio providente de la seguridad tiene como objetivos, el aseguramiento de la subsistencia, la elevación al máximo de la abundancia y la mínima desigualdad. El objetivo de las leyes civiles y penales es garantizar la seguridad de las propiedades.

Las leyes deben combatir los delitos contra la población y los delitos contra la riqueza nacional. Es sistema jurídico está íntimamente articulado a la economía política.

La concepción positiva de Bentham con relación a la política y la moral se sustenta en la investigación basada en la experimentación y la observación, afirma al respecto que «una teoría, en verdad, no es buena hasta en tanto que sus indicaciones no reciban, en su oportunidad, la confirmación de la experiencia.

El pensamiento económico de Betham, encarna el más crudo pragmatismo de la mentalidad mercantilista - capitalista, en un momento de la historia económica en que este sistema se viene desarrollando como el modelo de modernización racionalista en Inglaterra.

BENTHAM, Jeremy.  Filosofía de la Ciencia Económica.
BENTHAM, Jeremy. Escritos económicos. Selección y prólogo de W. Stark. Fondo de Cultura Económica. México, 1965.

References to my thought: Edimburgh period


Percy C. Acuña Vigil

In my blog Polis- Civitas I posted a paper where it is accounted those who were main initial references during my studies in Edinburgh. These references marked my path and were the melting pot that through urban planning, architecture and epistemological positioning allowed me to establish the basis for the construction of my thoughts. I report here basically my references in Economy and Philosophy from the Edinburgh period.:

Fundamentos en mis estudios iniciales:

Jeremy Bentham.  (London, 1748—1832)


Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher and political radical. He is primarily known today for his moral philosophy, especially his principle of utilitarianism, which evaluates actions based upon their consequences. The relevant consequences, in particular, are the overall happiness created for everyone affected by the action. Influenced by many enlightenment thinkers, especially empiricists such as John Locke and David Hume, Bentham developed an ethical theory grounded in a largely empiricist account of human nature. He famously held a hedonistic account of both motivation and value according to which what is fundamentally valuable and what ultimately motivates us is pleasure and pain. Happiness, according to Bentham, is thus a matter of experiencing pleasure and lack of pain.
Although he never practiced law, Bentham did write a great deal of philosophy of law, spending most of his life critiquing the existing law and strongly advocating legal reform. Throughout his work, he critiques various natural accounts of law which claim, for example, that liberty, rights, and so on exist independent of government. In this way, Bentham arguably developed an early form of what is now often called “legal positivism.” Beyond such critiques, he ultimately maintained that putting his moral theory into consistent practice would yield results in legal theory by providing justification for social, political, and legal institutions.
Bentham’s influence was minor during his life. But his impact was greater in later years as his ideas were carried on by followers such as John Stuart Mill, John Austin, and other consequentialists.

See concepts about Economy in this blog.

 Reference for his Philosophy
The standard edition of Bentham’s writings is: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, (ed. John Bowring), London, 1838-1843; Reprinted New York, 1962.
Stanford Enciclopedia of Philosophy


David Ricardo. (London, 1772 - 1823)


David Ricardo (1772 –1823) was a British political economist and stock trader. He was often credited with systematizing economics, and was one of the most influential of the classical economists, along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill. He was also a member of Parliament, businessman, financier and speculator, who amassed a considerable personal fortune. Perhaps his most important contribution was the theory of comparative advantage, a fundamental argument in favour of free trade among countries and of specialisation among individuals. Ricardo argued that there is mutual benefit from trade (or exchange) even if one party (e.g. resource-rich country, highly skilled artisan) is more productive in every possible area than its trading counterpart (e.g. resource-poor country, unskilled labourer), as long as each concentrates on the activities where it has a relative productivity advantage.

Reference 1
Reference 2
See in this blog a reference to his concepts.

John Stuart Mill.  (London, 1806,  1873, )


English philosopher, economist, and exponent of Utilitarianism. He was prominent as a publicist in the reforming age of the 19th century, and remains of lasting interest as a logician and an ethical theorist.

John Stuart Mill is a clear example of why from Lytton Strachey called "eminent Victorians", ie that kind of people who in the 19th century combined with unalloyed individualism no less profound conviction that being part a cultural elite gave them not only rights but was a source of obligations and social charges.


Reference 2
Stanford Enciclopedia of Philosophy
Encyclopaedia Britannica

Richard A. Posner. (New York city, 1939-)


Is an American jurist, legal theorist, economist and is currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He is an influential figure on the topic of law and economics.
He is the author of nearly 40 books on jurisprudence, economics, and several other topics, including Economic Analysis of Law, The Economics of Justice, The Problems of Jurisprudence, Sex and Reason, Law, Pragmatism and Democracy, and The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy.
The Journal of Legal Studies has identified Posner as the most cited legal scholar of the 20th century.
See in this blog a reference of his concepts
Reference 1
Reference 2
Reference to the Blue book, the oficial reference manual for citations in the USA legal system.:

Trough the works of Posner I became aquainted with North American Philosophy:


David Director Friedman (1945)



Is an economist, physicist, legal scholar, and libertarian theorist. He is known for his writings in market anarchist theory, which is the subject of his most popular book, The Machinery of Freedom (1973, revised 1989).
He has authored several other books and articles, including Price Theory: An Intermediate Text (1986), Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters (2000), Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life (1996), and Future Imperfect (2008).

Reference

Murray Newton Rothbard (New York, 1926 - 1995)



Murray Newton Rothbard (/1926 –1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School as well as an historian, philosopher and political theorist. His writings and personal influence helped create modern libertarianism and he was a central figure in it. He wrote over twenty books.
Rothbard was a leading influence on the development of anarcho-capitalism. In the words of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, "There would be no anarcho-capitalist movement to speak of without Rothbard."  He wrote that the state is "the organization of robbery systematized and writ large" and the locus of unscrupulous individuals.
Rothbard asserted that all services provided by what he called the "monopoly system of the corporate state" could be provided more efficiently by the private sector. He considered central banking and fractional reserve banking under a monopoly fiat money system a form of financial fraud, antithetical to libertarian principles and ethics.
Rothbard opposed military, political, and economic interventionism in the affairs of other nations.

Reference 1
Reference 2
Reference 3

Gary Stanley Becker. (Pennsylvania, 1930)


Is an American economist. He is a professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago and a professor at the Booth School of Business. He has important contributions to the family economics branch within the economics. Neoclassical analysis of family within the family economics is also called new home economics. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1992 and received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.[1] He is currently a Rose-Marie and Jack R. Anderson senior fellow at the conservative[2] Hoover Institution, located at Stanford University.
Becker was one of the first economists to branch into what were traditionally considered topics belonging to sociology, including racial discrimination, crime, family organization, and drug addiction (see rational addiction). He is known for arguing that many different types of human behavior can be seen as rational and utility maximizing. His approach can include altruistic behavior by defining individuals' utility appropriately. He is also among the foremost exponents of the study of human capital. Becker is also credited with the "rotten kid theorem."

Reference posted in wikipedia
Reference to the Becker & Posner blog

Ronald Harry Coase (London, 1910)



Is a British-born, America-based economist and the Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Chicago Law School. After studying with the University of London External Programme in 1927–29, Coase entered the London School of Economics, where he took courses with Arnold Plant.[1] He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1991.
Coase is best known for two articles in particular: "The Nature of the Firm" (1937), which introduces the concept of transaction costs to explain the nature and limits of firms, and "The Problem of Social Cost" (1960), which suggests that well-defined property rights could overcome the problems of externalities (see Coase Theorem). Coase is also often referred to as the "father" of reform in the policy for allocation of the electromagnetic spectrum, based on his article "The Federal Communications Commission" (1959), where he criticizes spectrum licensing, suggesting property rights as a more efficient method of allocating spectrum to users. Additionally, Coase's transaction costs approach is currently influential in modern organizational economics.

Reference 1:
Reference 2 The Nature of the Firm.
Reference 3: The problem of Social cost.


Theodore William Schultz. (Arlington, 1902 –1998)



Was the 1979 winner (jointly with William Arthur Lewis) of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
He taught at Iowa State College from 1930 to 1943,[2] and served as the chair of economics at the University of Chicago from 1946 to 1961. He became president of the American Economic Association in 1960.

Reference
See in this blog a reference to his concepts.

Adam Smith
Aynd Rand
Carl Menger
David Friedman
David Hume
David Ricardo
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
Friedrig Hayeck
Gary Becker
Jerome Bentham
John Stuart Mill
Ludwig von Mieses
Milton Friedman
Murray Rotband
Paul Samuelsson
Richard Posner
Ronald Coase
Theodore Schulz

viernes, 28 de junio de 2013

CONSENSO DE WASHINGTON

Se entiende por Consenso de Washington un listado de políticas económicas consideradas durante los años 90 por los organismos financieros internacionales y centros económicos, con sede en Washington D.C. (District of Columbia), Estados Unidos, como el mejor programa económico que los países latinoamericanos deberían aplicar para impulsar el crecimiento. A lo largo de la década el listado y sus fundamentos económicos e ideológicos se afirmaron, tomando la característica de un programa general.

Índice

    1 Origen del Consenso de Washington
    2 Críticas al consenso de Washington
    3 Véase también
    4 Referencias y notas
    5 Enlaces externos

Origen del Consenso de Washington

En realidad el Consenso de Washington fue formulado originalmente por John Williamson en un documento en noviembre de 1989 ("What Washington Means by Policy Reform", que puede traducirse como "Lo que quiere decir Washington con reformar orientaciones políticas" o "Lo que desde Washington se entiende como reforma de las orientaciones políticas"). Fue elaborado también en un documento como trabajo para una conferencia organizada por el "Institute for International Economics", al que pertenece John Williamson.[cita requerida]

El propio Williamson cuenta que en ese histórico borrador incluyó "una lista de diez políticas que personalmente pensaba eran más o menos aceptadas por todo el mundo en Washington". Originalmente, ese paquete de medidas económicas estaba pensado para los países de América Latina, pero con los años se convirtió en un programa general. Las políticas económicas del consenso son las siguientes:

    Disciplina presupuestaria (los presupuestos públicos no pueden tener déficit)
   Reordenamiento de las prioridades del gasto público de áreas como subsidios (especialmente   subsidios indiscriminados) hacia sectores que favorezcan el crecimiento, y servicios para los pobres, como educación, salud pública, investigación e infraestructuras.
    Reforma Impositiva (buscar bases imponibles amplias y tipos marginales moderados)
    Liberalización financiera, especialmente de los tipos de interés
    Un tipo de cambio de la moneda competitivo
    Liberalización del comercio internacional (trade liberalization) (disminución de barreras aduaneras)
    Eliminación de las barreras a las inversiones extranjeras directas
    Privatización (venta de las empresas públicas y de los monopolios estatales)
    Desregulación de los mercados
    Protección de la propiedad privada.

Hay que puntualizar que por "más o menos", Williamson entendía el complejo político-económico-intelectual que tiene sede en Washington D. C.: los organismos financieros internacionales (Fondo Monetario Internacional, Banco Mundial), el Congreso de los EEUU, la Reserva Federal, los altos cargos de la Administración, y los institutos con destacados expertos (think tanks) económicos.

Aunque Williamson subrayó que debe aplicarse con criterio, la lista pronto se convirtió en lo que más o menos pensaban los economistas sobre lo requerido para el progreso de todos los países en vías de desarrollo. Sin embargo, los ciclos de auge y apogeo no terminaron y se expandieron de América Latina a otros países, y también hubo pérdida del producto que duró más o menos una década para que las economías regresasen al nivel anterior a la transición. Y por cierto, también hubo una serie de crisis financieras a nivel más o menos generalizado.

El consenso sin duda no logró los resultados esperados. Se llegó a demostrar que el crecimiento efectivamente está ligado al comercio, pero que se debían dar incentivos para dicho comercio; además, la liberalización del comercio a veces deterioraba esos incentivos (apreciación cambiaria, por ejemplo). Mientras fue posible, se logró el crecimiento a través del comercio con incentivos tales como la reducción de los derechos a las exportaciones, un tipo de cambio más competitivo, la liberalización de las exportaciones antes que las importaciones (industrialización sustitutiva de importaciones), el mejoramiento de la infraestructura para el comercio exterior, y la creación de zonas francas.

Otra dificultad identificada, fue que las estrategias se centraron más en la eficiencia que en ampliar la productividad y por ende el crecimiento, por lo que estas reformas verdaderamente no inducían el crecimiento.

Además, si bien estas recomendaciones de política económica se planearon para crecimiento sostenido, no se resolvieron satisfactoriamente los fallos públicos y del mercado, que impiden acumular capital y aumentar la productividad.

Esa breve lista tomó autonomía y se constituyó en lo que más tarde se denominaría «neoliberalismo», especialmente por parte de sus críticos.

Con posterioridad, la "lista" inicial fue completada, ampliada, explicada, y corregida. Así y en distintos foros, se ha oído hablar del "Consenso de Washington II", y del "Consenso de Washington III".1 2 3
Críticas al consenso de Washington

Asimismo el Consenso de Washington ha recibido gran cantidad de críticas. Quizás las más importantes sean las que le formulara Joseph Stiglitz, Premio Nobel de Economía 2001 y ex vicepresidente del Banco Mundial. Críticos de la liberalización como Noam Chomsky o Naomi Klein,4 ven en el Consenso de Washington un medio para abrir el mercado laboral de las economías del mundo subdesarrollado a la explotación por parte de compañías del primer mundo.

Otras críticas provienen desde la antiglobalización hasta del mismo liberalismo económico junto con algunas de sus corrientes: la escuela clásica y la escuela austríaca. Ellos argumentan además que los países del primer mundo imponen las políticas del Consenso de Washington sobre los países de economías débiles, mediante una serie de organizaciones burocráticas supraestatales como el Banco Mundial y el Fondo Monetario Internacional, además de ejercer presión política y extorsión. Se argumenta además, de forma muy generalizada, que el Consenso de Washington no ha producido ninguna expansión económica significativa en Latinoamérica, y sí en cambio algunas crisis económicas severas, y la acumulación de deuda externa que mantiene a estos países anclados al mundo subdesarrollado.

A su vez, sus políticas educativas, si bien en buena medida acatadas en Latinoamérica (especialmente en países como Chile y Argentina) donde tenían considerable buena prensa, ha sido criticada desde dentro de estas mismas sociedades, en trabajos como el de José Luis Coraggio La educación según el banco mundial, que ponía en entredicho el modelo educativo neoliberal y las posibles consecuencias de su implementación, consecuencias que luego se ha visto como ciertas, y que en buena medida explotaron en la Crisis Educativa en Chile del 2011.5

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Crítica  

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