Chile as Development Model?

March 30, 2015 - 12:00 pm

Skylight Room (The Graduate Center, CUNY)

The Chilean economy is usually highly praised as having been successful since the imposition of neo-liberal reforms under the dictatorship of general Pinochet in 1973. However, the four decades that have elapsed include sub-periods with quite different policy approaches and notably diverse outcomes; thus, there is neither one unique model nor only one outcome. Sometimes, Chile has performed closer to becoming a “model” for development, and at other times the opposite or something in between. Focusing on three episodes (1973–81, 1990–95 and 2008–13), Ffrench-Davis will explore the underlying explanatory variables and some lessons for building “a model for development.”

Speaker:
Ricardo Ffrench-Davis, University of Chile

Commentator:
Jonathan Conning, Hunter College

Ricardo Ffrench-Davis (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is Professor of Economics at the University of Chile. Founding member of CIEPLAN, he later joined the Chilean Central Bank (1990-1992). Has taught at Oxford University, Boston University, Stanford, Universidad Complutense (Madrid), and other higher education centers in Spain, France, Italy, and Sweden. He is author of a large number of publications. He is author or co-author of 21 books and more than 130 technical essays on the international economy, economic development, and the economies of Chile and Latin America. His works have been translated into 9 languages in more than 20 countries and he has been part of editorial boards in El Trimestre Económico, Latin American Research Review, Revue d’Economie du Developpement, Revista del Banco Central de Chile, Quórum de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares y Foreign Affairs en español.

Jonathan Conning (Ph.D., Yale University) is an Associate Professor of Economics at Hunter College and The Graduate Center and an affiliate at NYU’s Financial Access Initiative. His research interests center on microeconomics and the economics of property rights and contracts in development, trade and political economy. His writing has explored the structure and operation of rural financial markets (in Chile and elsewhere), microfinance and social investment, agrarian organization, property rights reforms, and economic history. Raised in Chile, he has remained a regular visitor to the country, on several occasions as a visiting researcher or Fulbright Scholar at the University of Chile’s Centro de Economía Aplicada.