UNCTAD experts as an intellectual basis for developing countries' involvement in the reform of the international monetary system. Paper presented at the Summer Institute of the Center for the History of Political Economy, Duke University, June 19-22, 2023

Overview & Synopsis

This paper shows that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the group of 77 developing countries (G77) participated in the 1960s international monetary negotiations. This involvement was based on the agenda built by a group of experts gathered by UNCTAD in 1965. The group was composed of academic and practitioner economists from all over the world, including some famous names, such as Richard Kahn, Tibor Scitovsky, and Trevor Swan, as well as less-known though influential figures, including I. G. Patel, Gamani Corea, and Jorge Gonzalez del Valle. UNCTAD served as an “institutional infrastructure” (Gasper 2011) that allowed for the emergence of new analyses and narratives on the interests of developing countries in the international monetary reform that was being discussed among the wealthy countries of the Group of Ten (G10). The report of the experts proved influential. At the intellectual level, it convinced IMF economists, including Jacques Polak, to change their frame of analysis for a more global vision. At the political level, it was endorsed by G77 and participated in the G10 agreement for universal distribution of the newly created Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). Based on international organizations’ archives, this paper, therefore, challenges the invisibilization process of the G10 over G77 ideas. Multilateral negotiations also offer a “keyhole” to study new economist figures from developing countries. Thanks to prosopographic methodology, this paper attempts to follow the national and international connections of the experts as a way to open new research areas for the history of economics.