Las relaciones entre equidad y crecimiento y la nueva agenda para América Latina

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the changes in economic theory regarding the relationship between equity and growth and their influence on the development agendas proposed for Latin America. We departed from the ellipsis of distributional issues in the advised economic policies formulated in the 80s and 90s, beginning with the Washington Consensus. Then, the theoretical proposals (and the corresponding empirical evidence) that analyse the nexus between growth and equity and that question the existence of the «Kuznets Curve» are presented. The different postulates on the effects of inequality on economic growth are also revised and the changes in growth theory and the empirical results that maintain the idea of a relative relationship between equity and growth are exposed. Finally, we analyse the impact of these changes on the recent proposals for economic policy formulated in order to renew the Latin American agenda.