The historical context -- Two centuries of South American reflections on the development gap between the United States and Latin America / Tulio Halperin Donghi -- Looking at them: a Mexican perspective on the gap with the United States / Enrique Krauze -- Explaining Latin America's lagging...

Preface -- List of acronyms -- Geography and the colonial legacy -- Export led growth and the origins of protectionism -- Import substitution industrialization (ISI) -- Debt crises and the lost decade -- Poverty : origins and persistence -- The political economy of Latin American development --...