Bio: (1901-1985) Argentinian economist. Raúl Prebisch studied and later taught at the University of Buenos Aires. Prebisch is one of the forerunners of the dependency theory approach and was the first to introduce the division of the world economic system into a developed center and an underdeveloped periphery. In his opinion, trade between the center and the periphery is unequal and disastrous for the periphery, and the situation is getting worse, with the development of the world economy. The experience of falling prices of agricultural products that Argentina exported, which occurred during the Great Depression in the 1930s, influenced Prebisch to formulate the basic assumptions of his theory. During the period of economic downturn, there was a much larger reduction in prices for agricultural products than for industrial products. Economist Hans Singer made a similar argument, so in economics, this approach became known as the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis.

Main works

The Economic Development of Latin America and Its Principal Problems (1950);

Change and Development: Latin America's Great Task (1970); 

New International Economic Order and Cultural Values (1978);

Capitalismo periférico: crisis y transformación (1981);

Crisis of Advanced Capitalism (1981).