Pastor decided to study economics after hearing too
many
times that socially progressive policies made for bad economics.
His career is testament to the fact that a humanitarian agenda
can be integrated into sound economic policy.
As an undergraduate at UCSC in the mid-1970s, Manuel Pastor majored in economics
and creative writing. Not a typical double major, he concedes. "The
Literature Board didn't think anything of it, but the econ folks didn't
know what to make of me," says Pastor, who returned to UCSC last fall
as chair of the Latin American and Latino studies program.
Pastor decided to study economics after hearing too many times that socially progressive policies made for bad economics. He wanted to help poor people and people of color, yet economists opposed so much of what he believed in, including raising the minimum wage, affirmative action, and providing development assistance to Latin American countries. "I had to ask myself 'Are they right?'" he recalls.
Pastor's career is testament to the fact that a humanitarian agenda can be integrated into sound economic policy. In Los Angeles, where he was a professor of economics and director of the International and Public Affairs Center at Occidental College, Pastor became an influential community leader and economic development specialist. And his expertise on economic reform in Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, and El Salvador has distinguished Pastor as a member of the cadre of economists who help shape policy in Latin America.
For example, after the peace accord was signed in El Salvador, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) feared that the policy agendas of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were jeopardizing the fragile peace. The UNDP turned to Pastor and a handful of other economists for help drafting more stabilizing economic strategies. Their recommendations, which hinged on making changes in the country's complex foreign-exchange picture, included cutting military spending, increasing funding for education, job training, public health, and other social programs, and expanding land-reform efforts to help small farmers.
In Los Angeles, where he was raised, Pastor has been an outspoken advocate for the city's Latino residents. His report "Latinos and the Los Angeles Uprising: The Economic Context" was commissioned in the wake of the 1992 riots as the city struggled to develop a long-term response to the violence. Pastor's analysis of the underlying socioeconomic challenges facing Latinos in L.A. helped unify the Latino community and contributed to the emergence of a common policy agenda.
Another project--a study of the distribution of toxics storage facilities that uncovered systematic environmental racism in Los Angeles--prompted the city council to establish an environmental justice task force after the findings appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
Eager to become involved with Latino communities in Santa Cruz and San Jose, Pastor is quick to note that only his research topics--not the conclusions--are driven by his values. To illustrate his open-minded approach, he tells a favorite anecdote about economist John Maynard Keynes.
"It was late in Keynes's career, and a young man approached him after a talk and asked Keynes to explain a contradiction between what he'd said that night and an article he'd written earlier in his career. Keynes's response was simply: 'When I'm wrong, I change my mind. What do you do?'" Pausing to appreciate the story one more time, Pastor says: "I like that attitude, and I try to bring it to both my teaching and research."
Jennifer McNulty