CEPAL, the "International Monetary Fund of the Left"? The Tale of Two Global Institutions.

The article analyzes the intertwined post–World War II histories of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL), highlighting how their initially overlapping mandates evolved into competing institutional identities and economic paradigms. While the IMF, rooted in Northern interests, emphasized monetarism and fiscal austerity through conditional lending, CEPAL, a Southern institution led by Latin American economists known as cepalinos, advanced structuralism focused on long-term development and global economic inequality between center and periphery. The rivalry between these institutions emerged from their contest for influence in Latin America, particularly in Chile and Brazil, shaping their distinct approaches to inflation, monetary stability, and development policy. This competition not only defined their institutional personalities but also influenced global economic governance, demonstrating that ideas and policies were co-produced through dynamic interactions between Global North and South actors rather than unilaterally imposed.