Globalisation and Development in Democratic Chile: Trajectory, Assessment & Prospects

Name: Globalisation and Development in Democratic Chile: Trajectory, Assessment & Prospects
Start: 2012-03-15T12:00:00+00:00
End: 2012-03-15T14:00:00+00:00

March 15, 2012 - 12:00 pm

Ricardo Ffrench-Davis, University of Chile, National Prize of Humanities and Social Sciences of Chile

Moderator:
Mauricio Font, Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies

Is Chile on track to join the list of most developed countries in the world? Since 1973, when deep liberalization and globalization were imposed, the Chilean economy has experienced sharp recessions, followed by significant recoveries, averaging a GDP growth of 2.9% during the sixteen years of dictatorship. During democracy, it improved its performance to a 5% average, but split in two very diverse averages: 7.1% in 1990-98 and 3.8% in 1999-2011, and diverse distributive outcomes. What are the keys to understanding and assessing this changing trajectory? How to isolate the contribution of democracy to that process? How to assess the long-term prospects of the Chilean model or actually diverse models?

Ricardo Ffrench-Davis (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is Professor of Economics at the University of Chile. His talk will draw from his recent book Economic Reforms in Chile: From Dictatorship to Democracy, 2E (Palgrave 2010). Founding member of CIEPLAN, he later joined the Chilean Central Bank (1990-1992). Has taught at Oxford University, Boston University, Universidad Complutense (Madrid), Stanford, and other higher education centers in Spain, France, Italy, and Sweden. He is author of a large number of publications. His list of books includes Chile entre el neoliberalismo y el crecimiento con equidad; Reformas para América Latina después del fundamentalismo neoliberal; Macroeconomía, Comercio y Finanzas para reformar las reformas. 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. Ffrench-Davis has collaborated with various magazines: Revista Mensaje, Revista Hoy, Política y Espíritu, Nueva Sociedad, Problemes d’Amerique Latine, Politica Internazionale, Revue du Tier Monde, Siete+7, Third World Quarterly, Comercio Exterior de México.

Mauricio Font is director of the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies and professor of sociology at The Graduate Center and Queens College, City University of New York. His research examines problems of development and reform in Brazil, Cuba and Latin America as well as international cooperation in the Western Hemisphere.