Chile: Towards inclusive development

Lessons from outside the classroom: What can New Zealand learn from the long Chilean Winter?

“…The Chilean education system has ostensibly reproduced massive differences in wealth by reducing competition for the most desirable employment. Ricardo Infante and Osvaldo Sunkel (: 145) point out in their article on inclusive development in Chile that a high level of societal inclusion though work creates ‘better primary distribution of income at source’. Prominent Chilean economist Ricardo Ffrench‐Davis () shares a similar view, that the generation of productive employment, what he calls decent jobs with rising real incomes, is the main channel through which economic and social progress is transmitted.…”

Overcoming the “empty box syndrome”. Determinants of income distribution in Latin America

“…has made various contributions to the debate on the meaning of equity. As noted by Infante andSunkel (2009): " (1964) contended that the structural heterogeneity of Latin America manifested itself at that time in the differing productivity levels of workers in the various production strata, a characteristic of the region's economy that also lay at the root of its unequal income distribution". The concept of productive convergence is therefore crucial for economic growth with equity, as stressed in successive publications (2008 and 2010).…”

“…Thus, according to Fajnzylber (1990) an internationally competitive industrial system, in a social context that has surpassed a minimum equity threshold (agrarian reform), could help promote equality in the country through the following channels at least: a relatively broader distribution of ownership, associated with the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises; dissemination of labour skills; faster employment growth, associated with a dynamic international market; rising levels of productivity and pay; a broader-based and more socially integrated education system, which is an essential requirement for sustaining international competitiveness; and, lastly, dissemination of the industrial rationale throughout society, through both formal and informal channels, thereby making society more receptive to absorbing technical progress, which in turn will help raise productivity and distribute the fruits of technical progress more equitably among society at large http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/ xml/0/27240/lcg2322e.pdf]. 2 Without doubt, this vision of "productive convergence" is crucial for understanding the dynamics of growth with equity in emerging countries (Infante and Sunkel, 2009); but it is also interesting to consider more explicitly the effects of political stability, institutions and fiscal policy.…”

“…1990-1995 1996-2000 2001-2005 2006-2007 2008-2009 Although not their main focus, studies relating to poverty reduction and improving the income distribution are often underlain by conflicting views of the role of the state -whether as a catalyst of "productive transformation with equity" or as promoter of the corrective actions needed in the social domain. In the words of Infante and Sunkel (2009), "It seems vital for redistributive policies to be progressively supplemented with distributive ones to narrow productivity divides and thus improve the autonomous incomes of the most disadvantaged sectors. Distributive policies could thus bring about a real reduction in inequality both of incomes and of access to opportunities between the different groups in the social structure…" This dilemma between productive development and social policies calls to mind the Chinese proverb: "Give and man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for the rest of his IV concluding remarks: options for overcoming the "empty box syndrome" life."…”

Latin American structuralism and economic theory

“…Unfortunately, matrices are hardly produced any longer in Latin America. Nonetheless, some efforts have been made to restore this approach (Infante and Sunkel, 2009). 12 10 This agrees with a recent study that notes: "Since the mid-1980s, input-output (io) analyses have been excluded from the leading currents of economic thought.…”