Administración de Ingresos Provenientes de Recursos Naturales: Tres “Relojes” de Política

Abstract

The revenues from a non-renewable resource such as copper pose two distinctive challenges for economic policy rules. They fluctuate because commodity prices have historically been volatile, and they are generated by the rents from a depleting resource which might be exhausted or become obsolescent. Chile has recently become a world leader in managing revenue volatility, but it has yet to develop a response to the prospect that rents may cease. This is surprising since Chile’s history provides a graphic illustration: in 1920 technological advance wiped out the rents on nitrate exports which had provided half of public revenues. The appropriate response to such a risk is to accumulate revenues as assets. In a growing economy such as Chile, the return on domestic investment is higher than that on foreign financial assets so there is a good case for using some of the rents from copper to progressively raise the investment rate