Sectoral Growth in Chile: 1962-82

To understand the time path of agricultural development, the cause for the variability in sectoral outputs must be examined as part of the general process of economic growth. Such as examination is the focus of this report by Juan Eduardo Coeymans and Yair Mundiak, which appears at a time when there is a great deal of interest in the ability to sustain agricultural as well as general economic growth. This research extends beyond previous studies of agricultural growth at IFPRI by Mudlak and his associates by looking at the economy as consisting of five sectors that vary in their degree of tradablilty as well as in other attributes that caused differential response to the rapidly changing economic conditions in Chile from 1960 on. The study uses an input-output table to structure the flow of intermediate products between agriculture and the other sectors of the economy and shows how developments outside agriculture affect agricultural ability to complete for resources and to change is productivity. One of the many foundings of the study is that it was only when a stable macroenviroment was achieved that agriculture, and the economy at large, started ti grow. IFPRI has pursued the study of the effects of macro and trade policies on agriculture: Trade and Macroeconomic Policies in Developing Countries, a book published jointly with the International Center for Economic Growth, contains eight country studies and the regional survey undertaken by IFPRI researchers and their collaborators.