Understanding Chile’s Social Unrest in an International Perspective

IMF Working Papers, June 25, 2021

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Purpose: Provide a broad descriptive overview of Chile’s social issues, in comparison to other countries and over time, to place the recent social unrest in historical and international perspectives and help prepare the ground for future policy priorities.
Approach: Eclectic classification of a broad set of indicators along six dimensions of inequality.

Income inequality:
- Income inequality declined substantially but remains high, also compared to countries with similar level and path of development.
Perception vs. measured inequality:
- Chile seems to be one of the few countries in Latin America with declining inequality where perceived inequality actually increased.
Access to essential services:
- Notwithstanding an increase in social spending, access to essential services appears limited, particularly for middle and lower income classes.
- Contextual factors include fast growth of out-of-pocket health expenses, relatively faster growth of cost of living for the relatively poorer, and remaining weaknesses in the pension and education systems.
Inequality of opportunity:
- Inequality of opportunity is high, with limited competition.
Fiscal redistribution:
- Fiscal redistribution has improved markedly, but remains low by international standards.
Location (inter-regional inequality):
- Inter-regional inequality has declined substantially over the last two decades, reaching levels similar to the OECD median.

Subjects: Education, Fiscal redistribution, Income, Income distribution, Income inequality, National accounts
Keywords: Caribbean, development path, dimensions of Inequality, education quality, Fiscal redistribution, Global, household indebtedness, Income, Income distribution, Income inequality, inequality of opportunity