Multinational mining companies, employment and knowledge transfer: Chile and Norway from ca. 1870 to 1940

Engineers and the Knowledge Gap Between Andean and Nordic Countries, 1850–1939

“…As a consequence, a drastic decline in the number of workers per mining engineer is estimated to decline from 27,364 in 1880 to 147 in 1919. Ranestad (2020) shows that 35% of the Norwegian mining engineers between 1787 and 1940 studied in other countries and Grönberg (2003Grönberg ( , 2019 shows that Swedish engineers and technicians were part of an "outward looking" Nordic trend of studying and working abroad. Considering these trends, there were probably Swedish mining engineering students at foreign education institutions that are not accounted for in Table 4.…”

“…In this context, it seems that Nordic engineers had a higher ability to work at multinational companies. In fact, an analysis of employment at multinational mining companies in Chile and Norway between 1860 and 1940 indicate this (Ranestad, 2020). In the former case, multinationals employed thousands of local workers to lower positions, but used almost exclusively foreigners for managing and middle-management positions.…”

“…In relation to this last idea, Ranestad (2020) shows that 75% of the mining engineers who graduated between 1787 and 1940 went abroad to do (partly or completely) their studies, do geological surveys, acquire information about specific techniques or do practice or work. Similarly, based on Grönberg (2003) figures, Westberg (2019) shows that 39% of the Swedish engineers who graduated between 1880 and 1919 emigrated to the United States or Western economies, but 71% of them migrated back.…”

Natural Resources Curse in the Long Run? Bolivia, Chile and Peru in the Nordic Countries’ Mirror

“…She analyzes and compares two of the 'natural resource-intensive economies' countries that are considered here, namely Chile and Norway [33,102]. They have been closely similar in industrial structure and geophysical conditions, and they had similar growth during the 19th and early Twentieth Century; yet, they have had different development trajectories thereafter.…”

Natural Resources Curse in the long run? Bolivia, Chile and Peru in the Nordic countries’ mirror

“…She analyses and compares two of the 'natural resource-intensive economies' countries which are considered here, namely Chile and Norway. [3,103] They have been closely similar in industrial structure and geophysical conditions, and they had similar growth during the 19th and early twentieth centuries, yet they have had different development trajectories thereafter. Her thesis contributes to the debate about how and why some economies based on natural resource activities have been more dynamic and innovative than others by indicating contributing factors of key differences in one natural resource sector both countries developed, namely mining.…”