Eugenia Correa was a Professor of the Graduate School of Economics Faculty of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (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 Girón and Patricia Rodríguez for over twenty years. A notable early result of the Seminario was the four-volume book Contemporary Financial Economics in 2004, including texts from the research group working from Mexico plus those of Jan Kregel, Jan Toporowoski, James Crotty, Alain Parguez, Kostas Vergopoulos, Felipe Serrano and Jesus Ferreiro, among others.
The results of Eugenia Correa's research consider the approaches of the French school of regulation, the proposals of the monetary circuit theory and post-Keynesianism, constituting a coherent body in which social actors are always present. But they also consider the history and existence of the various capitalisms and the construction of asymmetric relationships within society and the global economy, a relevant aspect of the structuralist analysis carried out from Latin America.
Global finance and the operation of financial markets are a constant theme in Eugenia's research. But so is the analysis of long-term economic growth and, as Latin American structuralism emphasizes, the determinants of economic development, understood as a social project. Thus, the incorporation of heterodox authors includes the proposals of John K. Galbraith, but also of Celso Furtado. This is manifested in initiatives to review their thinking, and again, in publications that reflect an understanding of the relevance of updating their contributions to today's circumstances.
Eugenia also demonstrated a sharp eye for what research was most relevant for the present situation, in part as a result of her own efforts to promote publications, notably participating in various editorial committees such as the International Journal of Political Economy and the Review of Keynesian Economics, and as an associate editor of the Forum for Social Economics. A particular case is the creation and development of Ola Financiera, whose first publication came days after the fall of Lehman Brothers in September of 2008, and which to date has maintained 12 years of systematically presenting the result of research on economic topics of notable relevance, with the participation of the aforementioned group of researchers, plus, among others, James Galbraith, Mario Seccareccia, Louis-Philippe Rochon, Marc Lavoie, and Gary Dymski.
Eugenia was also very active in creating and strengthening networks between heterodox economists, both in the academic and political sphere, and where the two intersect. In Latin America, individuals such as Alberto Couriel, Alejandro Vanoli, Marcos Costa Lima, and Pedro Paez, have marked the course of their country's political history, while in Europe and the US, thinkers such as Massimo Cingolani and Bill Black have been active members in political-financial institutions; all participated in the academic circles that Eugenia helped maintain and expand. Eugenia was an active member of research/academic associations such as the Federación Mexicana de Universitarias (FEMU), the International Society for Intercommunication of New Ideas (ISINI), International Trade and Finance Association (ITFA), the North American Economics and Finance Association (NAEFA), the Union of Radical Political Economists (URPE), the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFE), and the Association for Social Economics (ASE). As a very active member of the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE), Eugenia befriended many influential members, such as John Henry, and was a frequent collaborator with others, such as Faruk Ülgen.
Regarding the examination of heterodox authors and their constant renovation, a special issue on John Kenneth Galbraith was published in the second issue of Ola Financiera. On Furtado and the theory of development, the special issue published in the winter of 2014–2015 in the International Journal of Political Economy, coordinated with Mario Seccareccia, is of particular relevance. Along Eugenia's path of research and her systematic capacity for study, she continued to consider other authors. Along this trajectory there is a notable approachment to Polanyi's ideas, in part inspired by her friendship with Kari Polanyi-Levitt and her 2018 translation, along with colleagues, of From the Great Transformation to the Great Financialization into Spanish in both Ola Financiera and the Fondo de Cultura Económica. Eugenia considers Polanyi's analysis of the three fictitious commodities to be pertinent, particularly as it shows that the neoliberal vision of the automatic adjustment of markets in the global sphere is a dangerous fantasy. National economies require governments with effective regulatory capacity, and able to create the institutions necessary for open economies. But the world economy also requires institutions with effective regulatory capacity.
On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Federal Reserve, Ola Financiera dedicated a special issue to the examination of the central bank. Introducing the issue, guest editor Mario Seccareccia notes that the Federal Reserve was founded in 1913, six years after the major financial crisis of 1907. In 2013, a few years after the crisis that began in 2007–2008, assessing the role of the central bank was particularly relevant. Among the contributions in the special issue is that of Jane D'Arista, who observes that the operational changes in the central bank no longer allows it to contribute to restoring growth and avoiding another financial crisis. This idea is present with great force in Eugenia Correa's analysis, in particular when explaining the operations of financial markets in Latin American countries, insofar as their markets are internationalized and subjected to incessant financialization.
Eugenia Correa's performance as an economist was outstanding. However, even more remarkable was her ability to promote initiatives of common work, as highlighted in the above lines. She always kept in mind that, if economics explains the wealth of nations, the research task is to identify the ways in which wealth is socially appropriated. Always in good spirit, with a smile ahead. For us (Laura, Fernanda, Gregorio) having shared life with her is a pride.