Eugenia Correa In Memoriam (1954–2021)

Abstract

Eugenia Correa was a Professor of the Graduate School of Economics Faculty of the Universidad Nacional Aut onoma de M exico (UNAM). She passed away on March 13, 2021 with a large number of projects in progress as part of her research agenda. From the UNAM as her base, she achieved a remarkable amount of research work. As an example, I will only consider a year of academic labors. In January 2000, she participated at the Allied Social Science Association (ASSA) meetings in Boston, presenting the paper “Currency Board or Dollar Adoption? A NAFTA Monetary Cooperation for Economic Development.” Months later, at the 2000 meetings of IAFFE (International Association for Feminist Economics), she presented “Mexico: Women and Full Employment.” In October of that same year, she also participated in the Second International Colloquium of the Celso Furtado Euro-Latin American Network for Research on Development, with the paper “New International Financial Architecture, Conglomerates and Developing Countries.” Another contribution was her presentation at the Conference organized by the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA), in Rio de Janeiro, in October of that year, entitled “The Mexican Financial Crisis: Consequences on the Local Currency.” In this same year, papers were also presented at various meetings held in Mexico by the Federation of University Women, on various topics related to gender; a paper was presented regarding international financial flows and their regulation at a conference organized by the Institute of Legal Research of the UNAM; and several more presentations were given on various topics related to the changes to be carried out in order to achieve forms of international finance compatible with the development of Latin American economies, held at various institutes of the UNAM and other universities in the country. The results presented by Eugenia Correa in that year, as with many others in her long career, show her very diverse research interests and her broad understanding of economics as a social science in which institutions, social regulations and even cultural roles are elements to be considered. She was a notable economist who understood and explained in depth that in this research area there are no automatisms, and few performances and behaviors typical of a natural science. In that sense, she was a consistent and brilliant heterodox economist who constructs her reflections but also takes into account the approaches of the orthodoxy, or the mainstream. Therefore, initiatives such as the one that was brought together in three issues of the journal Comercio Exterior on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, in December 2000 and January and February 2001, to review the economic thought of the 20th Century are not surprising. Among the authors considered are Friedman and Hayek. But also, Harrod and Leontief; also considered are Schumpeter, Kalecki, Keynes, Perroux, Minsky, Furtado and other Latin American structuralist authors. Among those writing articles were also notable researchers such as Paul Davidson, Alain Parguez, Randall Wray, Octavio Rodriguez, and Samuel Lichtenszejn. In subsequent years, similar initiatives were organized to promote the discussion of ideas considered to be relevant in the field of economics. Of particular relevance is the Seminario de Economia Fiscal y Financiera, a yearly event organized along with Alicia Gir on and Patricia Rodr ıguez for over twenty years. A notable early result of the Seminario was the four-volume