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This paper analyzes the first macroeconomic textbook based on modern monetary theory (MMT) written by Mitchell, Watts and Wray. MMT is a heterodox theory that a government need not worry about budget and monetary constraints and excessive inflation until a country achieves its goals of full employment, first-class healthcare for all citizens, and other desirable policies. Their textbook, Macroeconomics, leaves out major sections that are standard in macroeconomic textbooks, such as AS-AD analysis and economic growth theory. I argue that MMT is a dangerous theory that can lead to a bloated government, runaway inflation, and slow growth. Furthermore, MMT is unnecessary given that many advanced economies have moved in the opposite direction and achieved full-employment growth without adopting MMT, such as Sweden, Canada, Singapore, and Chile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread agreement exists on the broad outlines of the concept of sustainable development for developing countries. This calls for a development model capable of meeting basic needs without depleting natural resources at a rate that robs future generations of their use. In this regard, citizen participation is also considered key to legitimise such policy choices. However, there is considerable disagreement over the substance and meaning of the major components of the concept and the relationship between them. This paper argues that positions in policy disputes over the sustainable development of the forest cluster in two distinct approaches: market-friendly initiatives and grassroots development. Since market economies prevail almost everywhere, the question that is posed concerns the conditions under which the grassroots development approach is included as a significant complement to market-friendly initiatives. This is a political question, requiring an examination of actors, interests and power resources. The paper thus applies a political economy framework to a paired comparison of Mexico, where grassroots development approaches (community forestry) had notable successes, and Chile, where market-friendly forest policy crowded out alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the relationship between equity and credit market development and economic growth, in a sample of five very important 'emerging' markets. In particular, employing a multivariate time-series methodology to test for long-run trends and causality between variables that proxy for stock market development, credit market development and economic development. The results seem to suggest that equity markets have a role to play only in relatively liberalized economies, like Chile and Mexico. In financially repressed economies, like India, the equity market does not affect real sector growth. Furthermore, the banking crises in the 1980s and 1990s in Chile and Mexico resulted in a negative relation between economic growth and the credit market. In South Korea, equity and credit markets both affect economic growth, but not vice versa. In countries where the nature of the stock market has been speculative, like Taiwan, a negative relationship is detected between equity market development and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Chile, the 8.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that struck the country on February 27th 2010, made noticeable the necessity to Plan the Reconstruction of little towns and coves on the Central Chile costal edge that were affected by this natural disaster. For this reason, since 2010 onwards, the Government began different creative design programs in the search for the best way to carry through a sustainable Reconstruction in those urban centers which had been devastated by tsunami. These mentioned facts were materialized in the Master Plans for the Reconstruction of Chile. Its purpose was to articulate multidisciplinary teams in diverse areas such as: architecture, urbanism, design, economics and public policies in order to implement the Reconstruction plans. However, an unplanned collateral effect showed up: the local Urban Poverty increased. The Sustainable Strategic Reconstruction Plan of Duao, Iloca and La Pesca is a very important case of study in Chile, due to this experience shows clearly different ways of actors associativity, namely between public and private actors. Consequently, this process is a re-interpretation of the Opportunity Structures in territorial planning context after a natural disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chile has been lauded as a 'miracle economy' by orthodox development thinkers given its high and virtually uninterrupted economic growth over the past three decades. The social impacts of this economic transformation are controversial; absolute poverty has been reduced considerably, while income inequality has not. This article analyses poverty trends over the last thirty years, paying particular attention to the political approaches that have underpinned alleviation strategies and how these have shifted over time. The key finding of this research is that the radical neoliberal policies and structural adjustment of the 1970s and 1980s during the Pinochet regime had severe negative effects on the poor and middle class. The transition to democracy and the adoption of neostructuralism has produced considerable reductions in absolute poverty, attributed by supporters to the Concertación governments' pro-growth economic agenda combined with progressive social policies and innovative institutional reforms enacted in the context of a conducive political environment. Notwithstanding undeniable progress, there remain significant challenges in terms of reducing relative poverty, social exclusion, isolation and vulnerability underpinned by persistently high levels of inequality, a stratified social protection system and a dual labour market. There are unresolved tensions between the market, social rights and democratic freedoms in the current Chilean model that require resolution if the social achievements of the democratic transition are to be sustained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]