Fiscal aftershocks: taxes and catastrophes in chilean history

• Magdalena Gil ^[1] ; Jorge Atria ^[2]
  1. [1] Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

     Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

     Santiago, Chile

     
  2. [2] Universidad Diego Portales

     Universidad Diego Portales

     Santiago, Chile

     
• Localización: Revista de Historia Económica = Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, ISSN 0212-6109, Año nº 40, Nº 2, 2022, págs. 273-311
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1017/S0212610921000070
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen
  • español

    Los desastres socio-naturales no han sido mayormente explorados por la historia económica, aun cuando suelen generar crisis de gran envergadura y es sabido que son capaces de generar importantes cambios institucionales. En este artículo exploramos este tema mostrando que, en Chile, los grandes terremotos han generado ventanas de oportunidad para importantes reformas fiscales. Nuestros resultados indican que hay dos mecanismos para explicar esta relación: primero, la reconstrucción y recuperación post desastre demanda alta inversión pública, y esto a menudo significa mayores impuestos. En segundo lugar, la aparición de narrativas que justifican las reformas, como patriotismo o solidaridad. Sin embargo, los datos muestran que la mayoría de los cambios han tenido poco impacto en la estructura tributaria general del país, debido a dificultades para incluir impuestos a grupos de altos ingresos y una preferencia histórica por los impuestos indirectos.

  • English

    Socio-natural disasters remain underexplored events in economic history, even though they stress societies in several ways and are known for their relationship with institutional change. In this paper, we explore this issue showing that major earthquakes in Chile have become a window of opportunity for important fiscal reforms. Our findings indicate that there are two mechanisms to explain this relationship: first, reconstruction demands greater state expenditure and intervention; and second, the emergence of narratives that justify these reforms, such as patriotism and solidarity. However, data show that in the case of Chile, changes following disasters have had little impact on the overall tax structure of the country, and the historical preference for indirect taxes has been maintained, with limited power to impose taxes on high-income groups.

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