Monetarism, Economic Reform and Socio‐Economic Consequences: Argentina, 1976–1982

The several decades following the conclusion of World War II evidenced the generalised application of activist economic policies oriented toward the stimulation and manipulation of aggregate demand. In Western Europe and in much of the Western hemisphere these policies proved quite successful in raising living standards and generating economic growth. Nevertheless, for the past decade or so these long‐tried policy prescriptions have not appeared to work very well, and “stagflation” accompanied by low productivity growth has set in. As a consequence, there has occurred a return to a more “classical” set of economic postulates and policy prescriptions. Such policies have been adopted not only in the more developed parts of the western world (e.g., United States, Great Britain) but also in its lesser developed areas. Nowhere has this application been more in evidence than in the Southern Cone countries of Latin America — Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.