Economic Reforms in Chile: From Dictatorship to Democracy

by Ricardo Ffrench-Davis

Articulate and provocative, Richardo Ffrench-Davis offers the most comprehensive and timely assessment available of Chilean economic reform, from the military dictatorship of Pinochet in the 1970s up to the "reforms of reforms" made by the democratic governments in the 1990s.
Written in accessible and readable prose, Economic Reforms in Chile begins with an overview of the Chilean economy during the last fifty years. This historical time frame is divided into three periods of economic reform. The first period covers the Pinochet regime, during which the more orthodox neoliberalism was implemented. The second period includes the Pinochet dictatorship, during which economic policy shifted toward pragmatism, particularly in the areas of trade and finance; it also includes the crisis of 1982 and its effects. The third period begins in 1990 with the return to democratic elections and the significant reforms to prior reforms. This section also examines the search for growth-with-equity, success in investment and growth performance, macroeconomic sustainability, and the reduction of poverty. Ffrench-Davis addresses several "paradoxes," or results that defy the expectations of policymakers, in order to analyze the significance of comprehensive macroeconomic equilibrium and its implications for sustainable stability, growth, and equity.
Economic Reforms in Chile will be of interest to economists, political scientists, and policymakers involved with the economies of emerging and developing countries.
Ricardo Ffrench-Davis is Principal Regional Advisor, ECLAC, Santiago, and Professor of Economics, University of Chile.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 2, 2002

Reviews

[Richard Marney · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many books chronicling the Chilean economy during and after the Allende-Pinochet era. This book is among the best. It reads well for both the trained economist and the student of history. Its greatest value lies in the ability of author to provide a digestible introduction to the topic for the first time reader, as well as an incisive narrative for researchers going back to summarise the evolution of the policies (good and bad), and the exogenous shocks that characterised the period in Chile and Latin America more broadly at the time. A very, very good book. Strongly recommended!!

[Leman]

Very comprehensive book consisting of studies of the author in different aspects of macroeconomic and macrosocial life of Chile. A good source for those intending to get the general view of Chilean economy in second half of 20th century.