A PROPOSAL TO OBTAIN A LONG QUARTERLY CHILEAN GDP SERIES

An important limitation in order to specify and estimate a macroeconomic model that describes the Chilean economy resides in using variables with sufficient number of observations that allow for a reliable econometric estimation. Among these variables, the GDP constitutes a fundamental magnitude. Nevertheless, for this variable there is not quarterly information before 1980. This paper computes quarterly GDP series for the period 1966-1979 using the approach by Casals et al (2000). As result, the new series incorporates the cyclical dynamic in the quarterly series later to 1979 respecting, in addition, all the annual existing information before the above mentioned period.