PRODUCTIVITY PROBLEMS IN CHILE: THE ROLE OF THE STATE IN THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY

Abstract

This paper provides, on the one hand, a historical context related to the trajectory followed by the Chilean economy during the last decades and, on the other hand, a theoretical-conceptual framework to understand the development model implemented in Chile in the 70's under an authoritarian government and, later, partially reformed and consolidated during the democratic governments that have succeeded it since the 90's. In this sense, special attention is paid to the problems of productivity, scarce productive diversification, economic concentration and stagnation of growth and exports, among other aspects during the last years. In this sense, special attention is paid to the problems of productivity, scarce productive diversification, economic concentration and stagnation of growth and exports, among other aspects, during the last few years, in order to identify some strategies that may provide greater dynamism, stability, inclusion and sustainability to the Chilean economy.

The State, through its different agencies (government, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy, Central Bank) and instruments (macroeconomic policy, trade policy, industrial policy) plays a key role in the design and implementation of a development policy that points in the right direction, strengthening the foundations of the real economy and the domestic market. The challenge is to move from a passive role to an active role in production and to resume a counter-cyclical macroeconomic and progressive macro-social bias, taking as a reference the first five years of the 1990s where the growth rate averaged 7.1% and there were important advances in the reduction of unemployment and inequality and the increase in average and minimum wage levels while new productive capacity was created and exports expanded at a good pace.