The mining sectors in Chile and Norway, ca. 1870-1940: the development of a knowledge gap Chile and Norway are two 'natural resource intensive economies', which have had different development trajectories, yet are closely similar in industrial structure and geophysical conditions. This paper seeks to contribute to the debate about how and why some economies based on natural resource activities have been more dynamic and innovative than others by indicating contributing factors of key differences in one natural resource sector that both countries developed, namely mining. While the Chilean mining sector was considered technologically advanced in the mid-nineteenth century, a technological gap within the sector emerged from the turn of the century, multinationals created enclaves, thousands of mines were abandoned and many of the ore deposits in the country remained unexploited. At the same time, Chile's share of world copper production fell dramatically. The mining sector in Norway, on the other hand, was innovative, multinational companies were more integrated in the host economy and production of large-scale electrometallurgical production started in the late nineteenth century. In an in-depth comparative analysis, I explore how comparable organisations in the two countries-notably universities and mining schools providing formal mining education; organisations aimed to transfer technology and geological research centresdeveloped knowledge and how they help to understand the development gap between the two sectors. The comparison of knowledge organisations shows that more knowledge was developed and accumulated in Norway than in Chile, which indicates that there was a knowledge gap between the two countries. Mining instructions were similar, but there were striking differences between the two countries when it came to 1) number of graduates, 2) number of travel arrangements for practical learning and 3) organised geological mapping and ore surveys. These differences contribute to explain the emerging development gap of the two sectors. The underlying reason for the knowledge gap may be linked to the role of the state. In Norway, the state was much more active in supporting knowledge development through funding of education, scholarship arrangements and the National Geological Survey. In Chile, despite this huge natural resource potential, these key knowledge organisations were given lower priority by the broader set of political decision-makers.
Abstract:The new estimates of the Maddison Project show that GDP per capita ratio at purchasing power parity (ppp) between Bolivia and Finland has changed from 0.68 ca. 1850 to 0.16 in 2015; similarly, that between Chile and Norway from 0.65 to 0.28. The aim of this article is to present a review of the literature and available quantitative evidence to understand how these extreme differences became possible between countries with similarly enormous natural resource endowments. Specifically, the article seeks to: (a) identify some stylized facts that may help understand the divergence between Andean and Nordic countries; (b) identify key historical processes that explain the divergent effect of natural resource abundance in Andean and Nordic economies. In order to achieve these objectives, four topics are covered: GDPpc, population, trade and taxation. The analysis comprises three Nordic countries (Finland, Norway and Sweden) and three Andean countries (Bolivia, Chile and Peru) from the mid-Nineteenth Century to present day. The sample size, time span covered and thematic approach provide new evidence regarding previous work.
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