Educating Latin American Economists

Graduate economic programmes in Latin America have evolved along the lines of two different traditions: one closely linked to the current economic mainstream (being in that sense ‘global’) and the other more local and heterodox. This paper provides an overview of perceptions, interests, concerns and opinions of global Latin American graduate economic programmes, comparing them with similar programmes in Europe and the US. It reports the findings of a survey of Latin American global economics programmes and discusses the debate between global economics and traditional economics, arguing that there is a role for both, with global economics concentrating on the science of economics and traditional economics concentrating on the applied policy ‘political economy’ branch of economics – which is much broader than the applied policy training that graduate students get in global economics.