ESTRANGULAMENTO DA DÍVIDA EXTERNA E CRESCIMENTO ECONÔMICO NA AMÉRICA LATINA: LIÇÕES DA DÉCADA DE 80

Abstract

This paper aims at testing empirically the debt overhang hypothesis for the Latin American countries. It begins with a brief presentation about the situation in which the mentioned countries were found after the mexican moratorium in 1982, as well as about their performance concerning economic growth for the rest of the decade. Following that we present the theoretical background which constitutes the basis to the present work. Finally, we run an econometric model using panel data for the 1973-1980 and 1981-1989 periods, which yields the following results: (1) there is not a precise relationship between external debt and economic growth; (2) there is a statistically significant negative relationship between debt overhang and economic growth, which explains the latin american economies' performance throughout the eighties.