Prebisch: The continuing validity of his basic ideas

Prebisch’s analytical contributions, which are particularly valuable and numerous in the fields of development theory and policy, have sometimes been called “pre-economics”. This term is used to denote those points of view which seem to be based on and justified by common sense -for example, the desirability of industrialization and of the application of protection in order to achieve this- but which are at variance with conclusions backed up by economic science.