Celso Furtado’s thinking on economic development and the Complexity Economics approach

Abstract

Celso Furtado was an important thinker of economic development in Latin America. However, his ideas have been difficult to measure quantitatively, due to the lack of an economic theory and methodological apparatus able to depict the dynamic, unbalanced, unpredictable, and complex nature of economic development. In the 1980’s, though, complexity economics introduced complex-systems approaches into in economic analysis. In this article, we investigate the possibilities of associating fundamental aspects of Furtado’s structuralist theories, such as core-periphery structures or the need of industrial policies, to complexity thinking in general and the empirical approach of Economic Complexity in particular. We show that Complexity thinking can be linked to Furtado’s historic and structural analysis and allows to advance research on the impact of international trade on global and regional inequality as well as to reveal constraints and opportunities for structural transformation.