Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: Chile

This volume is one of a series on Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development, each focused on a different country. Three areas were singled out for in-depth analysis. First is the anatomy of exchange control. The economic efficiency and distributional implications of alternative methods of exchange control in each country were examined. Every method of exchange control differs analytically in its effects from every other. In each country study care has been taken to bring out the implications of the particular methods of control used. We consider it to be one of the major results of the project that these effects have been brought out systematically and clearly in analysis of the individual countries' experience. Second is the liberalization episode. Another major research area is a detailed analysis of attempts to liberalize the payments regime. In the analytical framework, devaluation and liberalization were carefully distinguished, and concepts for quantifying the extent of devaluation and of liberalization were developed. It was hoped that careful analysis of individual devaluation and liberalization attempts, both successful and unsuccessful, would permit identification of the political and economic ingredients of an effective effort in that direction. Finally, the relationship of the exchange control regime to growth via static efficiency and other factors was to be investigated. In this regard, the possible effects on savings, investment allocation,research and development, and entrepreneurship were to be highlighted.