La paradoja patagónica frente a las políticas nacionales y globales

Abstract

The Aysen Region is both a paradigmatic and paradoxical case. As an "extreme region", it is the only region in Chile south of Coquimbo that has increased its contribution to national GDP in the past forty years. Additionally, Aysen grew by 28% compared to Magallanes, the region that experienced the most significant decrease in contribution to the national GDP (54.5%); a paradox between two Patagonian regions! This is the research question. Finding show that there is a clear pro-north and anti-south bias within the open economy model, based on the natural resource exportation sector. Furthermore, it can be confirmed that at a national level, while the tertiary-urban sectors have experienced significant growth, the "winning regions" have experienced an accentuated "re-primarization". This establishes the basis for what can be identified as "commodity-regions", which are more fully embedded within global markets. Aysen, with a relatively late-blooming salmon industry and a renewed mining sector, would seem to be taking on and joining this primary-export model. Behind this model are a number of factors such as free market policies, economic liberalization, tariff exemptions and deductions, export promotion and global insertion, in addition to corresponding monetary and exchange policies. Supranational organizations involved in global economic governance must also be taken into account, as the macroeconomic policies implemented at this scale affect not only countries and their national governments, but also have a differential impact on sub-national regions as well.