The structuralist-monetarist controversy and the interpretation of Ignácio Rangel in "A inflação brasileira"

Abstract

The inflationary experience of Latin American economies of 50’s has been explained by two theoretical lines, the monetarists and the structuralists. An alternative explanation is the book of Ignacio Rangel The Brazilian Inflation, originally published in 1963. Employing Marxist and Keynesian concepts, such interpretation is not widely known even in the Brazilian economic thought history. This paper aims to explore the Rangel’s contribution, comparing it with the mainstream contributions in 50’s. Specifically, it introduced the Rangel’s criticism to monetarism and structuralist theories, discussing its features and original findings on the Brazilian inflation.