A Comparative Analysis for the Magellanic Economy : An Input-Output Approach

This paper detects structural similarities among several regions in Chile, in particular those that can be compared to the Magellanic and the Chilean Antarctica region: the regions Tarapaca, Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme, Bio- Bio and Los Lagos. This exercise is particularly relevant given the economic characteristics and geographic location of all of them. This comparison would allow less advantaged regions to learn from the most successful ones. Policy makers would be able to evaluate ex-ante different policies, helping in this way the decision making process. To this end, in this paper we follow two approaches: first, we find similarities among regions using Le Masne's (1988) indicator; second, we use one in which the similarities are identified thru the productive links, following the methodologies of Rasmussen (1956), Dietzenbacher and van der Linden (1997) and Soza (2007b). Once we determine which technique is better for our problem, a hierarchical cluster is applied to obtain groups of regions based on the relationship they form. It is of particular interest to identify those sectors that have the largest impact on development and analyze its productive linkages. The analysis is done using the 1996 input-output charts developed by National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the Ministry of Planning and Development (MIDEPLAN)