Fundación Grupo Vidanta

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International Seminar: “Explaining the gap between Latin America and the United States,” Buenos Aires, 2005.

Political and institutional determinants of economic development.

Date: 10 y 11 de noviembre de 2005.

Venue: Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art, MALBA, Constantini Collection. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Organizers:

Sponsors:

Seminar objectives

Analyze the political, institutional and legal factors that help determine the differences between the political and economic development of Latin America and the United States.Foster wide ranging and in-depth debate on the subject among internationally prominent Latin American and U.S. scholars and politicians, relevance to a vast audience in both the United States and Latin America.Contribute to the formulation of public policies favoring Latin American economic development through the publication in both English and Spanish of the papers presented during the seminar.

Speakers

In alphabetical order:

HERNANDO DE SOTO

President of the Instituto Libertad y Democracia (ILD) with headquarters in Lima, Peru. His books on development economics and policy, El otro sendero and El misterio del capital. Por qué el capitalismo triunfa en Occidente y fracasa en el resto del mundo, are best sellers and have been translated into almost 20 languages.

JOHN W. DIAMOND

PhD, Rice University. Kelly Fellow in Tax Policy, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University. Advisor to the United States Treasury on tax reform. Served on the Joint Committee on Taxation, United States Congress (2000-2004).

JORGE DOMÍNGUEZ

PhD, Harvard University. Director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies and Clarence Dillon. Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University. Noteworthy among his works is México, Central, and South America: New Perspectives, 5 volumes, Routledge, 2001.

FRANCIS FUKUYAMA

PhD, Harvard University. Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. Of note is his book State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century, Cornell University Press, 2004.

TULIO HALPERÍN DONGHI

PhD in History. University of Buenos Aires. Muriel McKevitt Sonne Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Berkeley. Notable among his books is La Argentina y la tormenta del mundo. Ideas e ideologías entre 1930 y 1945, Buenos Aires, Siglo XXI Editores Argentina, 2003.

ENRIQUE KRAUZE

PhD in History, El Colegio de México. Full member of the Mexican Academy of History. Director of Letras Libres magazine. His work: Mexico: Biography of Power, was published in the United States by Harper Collins in 1997.

CELSO LAFER

PhD, Cornell University. Professor of Philosophy and the General Theory of Law at the University of Sao Paulo. Former Minister of Development and Foreign Relations of Brazil. His works include A identidad internacional do Brasil e a politica externa brasileira: Passado, presente e futuro, Editora Perspectivas SA, Sao Paulo, 2001.

JUAN PABLO NICOLINI

PhD in Economics, University of Chicago. Rector of the Torcuato Di Tella University. Noteworthy among his publications are the following co-authored works: "Inside-Outside Money Competition" in Journal of Monetary Economics (August 2003); and "Recurrent hyperinflations and learning" in American Economic Review (December 2003).

ADAM PRZEWORSKI

PhD, Northwestern University. Carroll and Milton Professor of Politics, New York University. In 2001 he was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Prize. His publications include Democracy and Development, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2000, and Democracy and the Rule of Law, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

JAMES ROBINSON

PhD, Yale University. Professor of Political Science, Harvard University. His major works include "Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution" co-authored with Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118, 2002.

RIORDAN ROETT

PhD, Columbia University. Director of the Western Hemisphere Program, SAIS, The Johns Hopkins University. His publications include the following co-authored and co-edited works: Mexico in the Age of Globalization: Changing Domestic and External Dynamics, 2004, and The Andes in Crisis: Security, Democracy and Economic Stabilization, 2004.

JULIO MARÍA SANGUINETTI

Lawyer. member of the Colorado Party, former president of the Republic of Uruguay for two terms (1985-1989) and (1994-2000). A prominent journalist, he has worked for publications such as Canelones and the Acción, El Día and El Correo del Viernes newspapers.

ERNESTO ZEDILLO

Degree in Economics, Mexican Polytechnical Institute. A Master’s and PhD from the Universities of Bradford and Yale, respectively. Director of the Center for the Study of Globalization, Yale University. Former president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000.

GEORGE R. ZODROW

Professor of Economics and Rice Fellow, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University. Advisor to the United States Treasury on Tax Reform. A former advisor to the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development, he has been involved in tax reform projects in many countries.

Moderators

PABLO GUIDOTTI

PhD in Economics, University of Chicago. Dean of the School of Government, Torcuato Di Tella University.

ANDRÉS REGGIANI

PhD in History, State University of New York. Professor of the Department of History and of the Master’s in International Studies, Torcuato Di Tella University.

FERNANDO ROCCHI

PhD in History, University of California, Santa Barbara. Director of the History Department and Academic Director of the Master’s in Journalism, Torcuato Di Tella University.

ROBERTO RUSSELL

PhD in International Relations, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University. Director of the Master’s in International Studies, Torcuato Di Tella University, and President of the Grupo Vidanta Foundation.

CATALINA SMULOVITZ

PhD in Political Science,The Pennsylvania State University. Director of the Department of Political Science and International Studies, Torcuato Di Tella University.

PROGRAM

November 10, 2005

OPENING REMARKS: Juan Pablo Nicolini

Session 1: Explaining Latin America’s Lagging Development in the 19th and the first half of the 20th Century.

Enrique Krauze. Tulio Halperín Donghi.

Moderator: Fernando A. Rocchi.

Session 2: Explaining Latin America’s Lagging Development in the Second half of the 20th Century: Growth Strategies, Inequality and Economic Crisis.

Jorge Domínguez. Riordan Roett.

Moderator: Andrés Reggiani

Session 3: Does Politics Explain the Economic Gap between the United States and Latin America?

Adam Przeworski. James A. Robinson.

Moderator: Catalina Smulovitz.