Macroeconomic Adjustment and Structural Change: The Experience of Argentina, Brazil and Chile in 2000-2010

This paper attempts to throw light upon the influence macroeconomic policies have on structural change and microeconomic behaviour. We compare the cases of Chile and Brazil, on the one hand, and Argentina on the other, as these countries opted for different macroeconomic policy regimes. Whereas Chile and Brazil adopted an ‘inflation targeting’ regime, Argentina proceeded on the basis of an administrated exchange rate regime. The main conclusion of our research is that both regimes were incapable of adequately dealing with issues of international competitiveness and of equity improvement and had to be supplemented with further public sector interventions beyond management of the fundamentals in the economy. The evidence suggests that more than adequate management of macro fundamentals is needed in ‘real life’ policy making.