Chile

Se estudia la relación entre la inversión en investigación y desarrollo (i+d) y la productividad en el sector manufacturero chileno usando datos de la Encuesta de Innovación Tecnológica del último decenio. El análisis se basa en un modelo multiecuación en que se consideran todo el proceso de innovación y los determinantes de las decisions empresariales de invertir en i+d, así como los resultados en innovación y sus efectos en la productividad. Se constata que: i) es más probable que las grandes firmas inviertan en i+d; ii) la intensidad del gasto en i+d incrementa la probabilidad de innovar en procesos; iii) asimismo, ella no afecta a la probabilidad de innovar en productos; iv) la menor “apropiabilidad” disminuye la probabilidad de innovar en procesos; v) es más probable que la innovación en productos se introduzca desde las empresas de mayor tamaño, y vi) la productividad aumenta con la innovación en procesos.

En este trabajo se observa el vínculo público-privado existente en Chile para abordar políticas de infancia. Se analizan el papel de ambas esferas y las dimensiones y componentes necesarios para que este encuentro anteponga el interés superior del niño. Se considera el juicio de expertos mediante el análisis de contenido, permitiendo identificar las dimensiones y componentes relevantes de la interacción. Posteriormente, la metodología ahp (proceso analítico jerárquico) permite priorizarlos cuantitativamente procurando que este encuentro incida positivamente en la niñez. Se evidencia que esta interacción se desarrolla verticalmente, donde el Estado define las políticas y la sociedad civil las implementa, debido principalmente a que en la esfera pública se administran los recursos que, en alto porcentaje, sostienen a la esfera privada. Se concluye que existe el desafío de generar diálogos horizontales, en que la interacción no sea condicionada por recursos económicos, sino por el propósito compartido respecto de la infancia.

En este trabajo se describen las recientes reformas previsionales en la Argentina y Chile. Con ellas se pretendió en los años ochenta y noventa mejorar la sostenibilidad fiscal de largo plazo y el diseño institucional de los sistemas, trasladando parte de los riesgos sociales y económicos desde el Estado a los participantes. En años recientes, las autoridades de ambos países coincidieron en identificar a la insuficiente cobertura entre los adultos mayores y al bajo nivel de los beneficios como los principales problemas de los sistemas previsionales vigentes. Debido a divergencias institucionales y políticas, las respuestas fueron dispares. En Chile, un proceso prolongado y participativo redundó en una amplia reforma concentrada en efectos a mediano plazo mediante ajustes cuidadosamente calibrados. En la Argentina, en cambio, las reformas involucraron un gran número de correcciones sucesivas, con poco debate público sobre sus implicancias y efectos en la cobertura y las necesidades fiscales.

Adolescent fertility and maternity are a source of concern in the Latin American and Caribbean region, because they imply situations of adversity, have not gone down as in other age groups, and are more frequent among poor teenagers. Analysis of the micro-data from the last three censuses in Chile also shows: i) a generalized tendency for adolescent maternity to be out of wedlock; ii) the protective effect of staying in school, which comes into play after passing an educational threshold which is rising with time; iii) the leading role played by the parents of the households where most adolescent mothers live, and iv) the need for specific programmes and integral actions to reduce adolescent maternity, since although access to information and sexual health and reproduction services avoids pregnancies, it is not enough when there is a lack of alternatives to maternity or there are cultural and psychological obstacles to the proper use of contraceptive methods.

In earlier studies, the author showed that the type of development adopted by Chile differed significantly from that of the successful East Asian countries. Up to 1986, the Chilean economy had a relatively weak and technologically unsophisticated manufacturing base, and the penetration of imported inputs was mainly at the expense of the scanty domestic productive intermediation. Therefore, neither manufacturing industrialization nor industrial interdependence appeared to facilitate the type of manufactured exports that might sustain dynamic industrial development based on external markets. The present paper analyses changes in Chile’s production structure from 1986 to 1996, generally extended to 2000, using methods similar to those of earlier studies. The conclusion is that, despite the outstanding growth rates over the period, the economy still appears relatively weak as a basis for a sustainable increase in economic and technological sophistication.

The transition to democracy in Chile has been achieved in an unusually rapid and successful manner. Its consolidation is only just beginning, however, and is faced with serious challenges which will call for extensive and complex efforts in the years to come.

Processes of adjustm ent and restructuring of the production sectors to a new system of macroeconom ic incentives are slow, costly and more inefficient than conventional microeconomic theory would lead one to suppose. In this article, the authors explore the process of the restructuring of production of a Chilean metal products and machinery company and the way it gradually modified its operations from the 1970s onw ards, adapting them to new macroeconomic and mesoeconomic signals. As is well known, in the last two decades the system of incentives and the regulatory framework for production activities in Chile have undergone profound changes, gradually moving -with advances but also setbacks-tow ards an organizational model more open to external competition, more deregulated, and with less public sector participation in the field of production proper.

In this article the author analyses the situation of Chile’s agriculture and economy in tw o periods. In the first, from the end of 1973 to June 1981, the economy grew at a high rate, in flation fell, wages rose, fiscal surpluses were achieved and reserves builtup. In contrast, unemployment grew sharply, investment and saving fell, income distribution deteriorated, and the private sector’s debt reached very high levels. The balance-of-payments deficit, the worsening of the terms of trade, the higher interest rates and the very large foreign debt acted as detonators of a crisis which stamped its mark on the second period. This period, from 1981 on, is characterized by the introduction of various adjustment measures designed to correct the imbalances w ithout altering the essential nature of the adopted model.

This study simulates the social and economic effects of introducing reverse mortgages in Chile. It uses the 2009 Social Protection Survey and recent simulation methodologies to analyse the monetary gain associated with taking out such a loan, which is paid in periodic instalments over the homeowner’s lifetime. Eligible individuals are retired homeowners, who account for 70% of the older population. Monies received increase exponentially depending on the age at which the reverse mortgage is taken out. Lastly, the increase in liquidity has significant social potential, as it could reduce the poverty rate in the target group by 15%.

Social policies aimed at reducing inequalities in the labour market need to be founded upon a solid understanding of the factors that generate disadvantageous conditions for specific segments of that market. This article describes inequalities in the occupational and income structure affecting economically active women and, in particular, economically active women migrants in Santiago, Chile, and provides some insights into the reasons why these disadvantages exist. Chile’s economic growth process is seen by some as setting an example for other Latin American countries which are opening up their economies to international markets. Steps have to be taken, however, to prevent still greater concentration of wealth, the persistence of high levels of poverty, an increase in the heterogeneity of the labour market and inequalities in wage levels.

This article looks at the bases, objectives and results of the “lateral” trade policy adopted by Chile in the 1990s. In particular, it seeks to give a clearer idea of the role of bilateral agreements and to incorporate into the discussion the empirical evidence observed in the case of Chile. It concludes that the criticisms levelled at this policy, especially by those who advocate unilateral trade openness rather than other options, are based on an incomplete analysis of basic international trade theory. It is therefore argued that the economic concepts taken into account in evaluating the economic and political rationality of this strategy must be expanded to acknowledge the complementarity of the available options and to incorporate the analysis of game theory, the existence of economies of scale, the transaction costs existing in the functioning of international markets, and foreign policy elements. Through this multidimensional strategy, Chile has sought to overcome various problems and to stimulate the areas of its economy which have been most dynamic in the 1990s: exports of products with greater added value, services and capital. By traditional standards of appraisal, the results obtained do not reflect any negative impacts but they do show positive effects.

Closer integration of the Chilean economy into the world economy, based primarily on use of the country’s comparative advantages, has contributed significantly to the changes observed in the performance and the relative positioning of the regions of Chile. This article examines and compares the dynamics of growth in these regions and explains their differing performance. The faster-growing regions have become integrated into the world economy thanks to their renewable and non-renewable natural resources, the development of agro-industrial exports and the presence of cities that have linkages with the global economy as providers of financial and commercial services. Growth in some of the regions has not necessarily translated into social improvements, and this demonstrates the need for explicit social policies.

Working with census information on standardized academic performance tests and using different estimation techniques, this article analyses sociodemographic and management factors affecting the performance of Chile’s municipal schools. The evidence suggests that the system’s lack of flexibility, particularly where teacher dismissal is concerned, is an important factor but not the main cause of poor academic performance. Conversely, the differences in academic performance between municipal schools that can be attributed to management are almost twice the standard deviation of the System for Measuring the Quality of Education (simce) performance test and 20 times the increment ascribed to the “complete school day” initiative, which costs the equivalent of half a point of gross domestic product (gdp).

Latin America’s economics are prone to continual shocks, of both external and internal origin, giving rise to a marked variability in their growth rates. In order to reduce this volatility, it is necessary therefore to establish stabilization mechanisms, including in particular the instruments of fiscal policy. The economies’ increasing variability is prompting the development of fiscal norms that in-corporate anti-cyclical features. Such rules arc based on the setting of medium-term public spending goals that are consistent with the economy’s growth trend and level of public debt but are independent of the cyclical component of the level of activity. In such a system, tax revenues would perform the traditional function of stabilizers of economic fluctuations.

Against a background of increased expenditure and improved equity, this reform of public health management in Chile, set in the context of a dual health system, aims to consolidate a cost advantage over the private sector. Emphasis has been placed on the distinction between the regulatory, financial and supply functions in the public sector, and a relative opposition of interests between them has been encouraged, with a view to generating quasi-markets. The “management commitments” entered into between the Ministry of Health and the Health Services mark a departure from the strategy of resource allocation guided by historical budgets and make results the decisive factor of funding.

This article studies the effect of the stabilization of fiscal expenditure and the anti-cyclical use of taxes as stabilization variables in the Chilean economy, through the calibration of a basic macro-economic model adapted to the actual conditions of that economy. The results show that some 25% of the variability of economic growth could be eliminated by obviating fiscal cyclical impulses through constant growth of public investment and consumption and through anti-cyclical taxes. On the one hand, it is proposed that a system of stabilization of the growth of fiscal expenditure should be established, through a system of rules and degrees of flexibility subject to specific clauses.

A great deal of effort has been put into education reform in Latin America since the early 1990s. Extending the coverage of educational opportunities and improving the quality of the education delivered in schools are crucial for the countries of the region, where education in State schools has often been of a low standard. It is not enough just to study macro education policies as they are formulated by governments and implemented by centralized ministries of education. What is promised or envisioned on paper is often quite different from what actually happens in school establishments. It is important to understand, at the micro level, how schools are functioning in practice as they implement educational policies. Educational policies and social reality come together in school classrooms and schools can teach us a great deal about achieving quality in basic education. The focus of this article is on poor children in poor schools and the continuing challenges of educating children in poor communities. Chile’s national programme to improve the quality of education and educational outcomes in 900 of its poorer primary schools, known as the P900 programme, provided an ideal framework for identifying and studying the challenges faced by schools in poor communities in trying to deliver a high-quality education to their children and for understanding how and why they are struggling to meet national standards. This study is concerned with learning from schools to achieve a better understanding of what they see, in the context of their community and the student population they serve, as the practical realities of educating poor children. At the national level, a macro research methodology was used to identify the worst-performing schools in the P900 programme on the basis of their results in standardized examinations and the trends seen in these results over the 1990s. A small purposive sample of the worstperforming schools was drawn from this group and quota sampling techniques were used to ascertain their main characteristics. A micro study of each of the schools selected was then carried out, involving school visits and interviews to understand school and pupil performance and to identify critical factors that might be amenable to change. In-depth reports were prepared on each school. This article synthesizes the lessons learned from these micro studies.

This article presents a model for dealing systematically with the different matters associated with policies for developing the infrastructure necessary to support a digital economy, identifying the roles of the State and the private sector in this respect. It also describes the main initiatives taken in terms of creating and improving the infrastructure and content in the case of Chile, which illustrates the recent progress made in developing the country’s digital economy and the challenges still pending in this field. There is general agreement that Chile must move closer to those countries already incorporated into the information society, and it must do so quickly and promptly. This study helps to identify the main factors for evaluating the policy aimed at promoting access to the digital economy, which is one of the central pillars for designing policies to advance toward the information society.

Many developing countries have been applying export promotion policies during, the last fifteen years. Among them, mention may be made of Brazil, Colombia, Hong Kong, Israel, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Yugoslavia. The conditions, timing, mechanisms and effects differ from one case to another and cover a broad range of political and economic models. The variety displayed by the various kinds of past experience show above all that export promotion is not exclusively linked to a given model.

This paper suggests that Chile needs to adopt a renewed longterm development strategy tending towards inclusive development with increasing equity in order to supersede the undesirable effects of the current economic growth pattern, namely the persistence of unacceptable inequality in incomes, living standards and quality of life and a growing feeling of social exclusion. To address these issues, it first charts the development of inequality over the past two decades. It then goes on to analyse the characteristics of the production structure in the Chilean economy, as these are believed to be a determinant of inequality. Drawing on this analysis, it outlines a renewed strategy designed specifically to include the different production and social strata involved in the growth process. Lastly, it identifies the policy areas critical to inclusive development.

En este trabajo se utiliza una base de datos de panel para contribuir con nueva evidencia sobre la repercusión de los determinantes socioeconómicos en los indices de logro académico en Chile. Se advierte que los condicionantes socioeconómicos tienen un efecto estadísticamente significativo y creciente de un período a otro en el nivel de logro académico. La evidencia muestra que dos individuos de distinto nivel socioeconómico (NSE), que logran igual puntaje en el Sistema de Medición de Calidad de la Educación (SIMCE) en octavo básico, presentan una brecha de más de 70 puntos promedio cuatro años después al rendir la Prueba de Selección Universitaria (PSU). Se concluye que en un contexto de elevada desigualdad de ingresos y altos retornos a la educación terciaria, los índices de logro academic activan restricciones en el acceso a la educación superior, principalmente en la población de bajo NSE, perpetuando la mala distribución de los ingresos.