A Humanist Perspective on Economic Policy: Ecuador's Economic Reforms and Industrial Policy, 2007-2017
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation assesses Ecuador's economic policies during the Correa administration (2007 - 2017) from the perspective of human development. It aims to accomplish two objectives —one conceptual and one empirical. At the conceptual level, it brings together two intellectual traditions that are often seen as antagonistic: on the one hand, classical development theory with its focus on structural transformation as the central concern of development and, on the other hand, the humanist development tradition, which asserts the centrality of human wellbeing as the ultimate objective of policy interventions. Combining the normative gaze of the human development approach with classical development theory's insights about the centrality of industrial policy as tool for achieving sustained per capita growth, I build a framework for evaluating economic policies in general, and Ecuador's economic policies in particular, in terms of their direct and indirect contributions to human wellbeing. At the empirical level (Part II), I apply the framework developed in Part I to analyze Ecuador's economic policies during the Correa administration. Though my analysis identifies manifold successes and failures, it concludes that —with some notable exceptions— the administration's economic policies were largely conducive to enhancing economic and human development. Moreover, many of the policies that most effectively contributed to the expansion of human development —particularly public investment, macroeconomic and regulatory policies— were those that most markedly broke with the policy regime of Ecuador's Washington Consensus period (1982-2006). However, in the realm of industrial policy, the government notably fell short of the speed, scale and precision required to achieve a significant change in its commodity-dependent pattern of productive specialization. This prevented the country from achieving a level of diversification that could have provided a buffer against the boom and bust…
abstract: This dissertation assesses Ecuador's economic policies during the Correa administration (2007 - 2017) from the perspective of human development. It aims to accomplish two objectives —one conceptual and one empirical. At the conceptual level, it brings together two intellectual traditions that are often seen as antagonistic: on the one hand, classical development theory with its focus on structural transformation as the central concern of development and, on the other hand, the humanist development tradition, which asserts the centrality of human wellbeing as the ultimate objective of policy interventions. Combining the normative gaze of the human development approach with classical development theory's insights about the centrality of industrial policy as tool for achieving sustained per capita growth, I build a framework for evaluating economic policies in general, and Ecuador's economic policies in particular, in terms of their direct and indirect contributions to human wellbeing. At the empirical level (Part II), I apply the framework developed in Part I to analyze Ecuador's economic policies during the Correa administration. Though my analysis identifies manifold successes and failures, it concludes that —with some notable exceptions— the administration's economic policies were largely conducive to enhancing economic and human development. Moreover, many of the policies that most effectively contributed to the expansion of human development —particularly public investment, macroeconomic and regulatory policies— were those that most markedly broke with the policy regime of Ecuador's Washington Consensus period (1982-2006). However, in the realm of industrial policy, the government notably fell short of the speed, scale and precision required to achieve a significant change in its commodity-dependent pattern of productive specialization. This prevented the country from achieving a level of diversification that could have provided a buffer against the boom and bust…
author: Estevez, Laura
language: eng
keywords: economic development, economic policy, economic transformation, Ecuador, industrial policy, Latin America, structural change
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/928a01ec-9d89-4ce6-bbe5-76e93b1acbfa/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2022-10-01
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:11Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.96464