The goal of this course is to understand economic issues in contemporary Latin American society in their social, cultural and political context.

This course provides an overview of the environment shaping business incentives and economic trajectories in Latin America, by integrating culture, economics and politics. “Standard” topics in economics and business, such as the recent macroeconomic performance and the microeconomic competitiveness of Latin American countries, are covered. However, the course also transcends the borders of academic disciplines and deals with topics such as social change, violence, national identity and the political underpinnings of long-run prosperity. A common theme of the course is that current political and economic structures can only be understood in a historical context.

The literature for this course consists of a collection of academic articles and book chapters, plus other materials such as podcasts, newspaper articles and policy reports.

First-year courses in economics in either the International Business bachelor or in the Economics and Business Economics bachelor, or equivalent courses from other programmes.