Macroeconomtc performance of sixteen ibero-american countries over the period 1980-1991

Resumo

The objective of this study is to analyze the macroeconomic performance of 16 Ibero- American countries over the period 1980- 199 1. Macroeconomic performance is defined as the ability of a country's macroeconomic managers to provide four welfare-enhancing economic services to their citizens: a high leve1 of GDP per capita, a low rate of inflation, a low rate of unemployment, and a favorable trade balance. We use linear programming techniques to construct a best practice macroeconomic performance frontier, against which to measure the relative performance of each country in each year relative to al1 countries in al1 years. We then normalize the data in order to evaluate the quality of the macroeconomic management of each country.