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- Title
Profit Margins in Chilean Agriculture: A Reply.
- Authors
Thiesenhusen, William C.
- Abstract
The report by James O. Bray in the February 1966 issue of "Land Economics" is another attempt to explain the current malaise of Chile's agricultural sector. As the reasons for the food shortage which finds Chile unable to sustain her burgeoning population with domestic supplies' are discussed further, it becomes steadily clearer that economists have reached somewhat of an impasse in their arguments. Profit margins in agriculture are too low for efficient farm operation due to discriminatory price policies and rising costs of operation. The amount of irrigated land devoted to natural pasture can certainly be considered an index of flagrant land mismanagement. The study concludes that to draw forth a production increase as large as Chile currently requires would require very substantial price increases because the smaller the group of price-responsive farmers the larger the increase in price that would be necessary. Agrarian reforms could be executed to transfer control of resources to persons more likely to be price-responsive. This would certainly improve income distribution.
- Subjects
CHILE; AGRICULTURAL industries; AGRICULTURAL economics; LANDLORDS; CONSUMPTION (Economics); PROFIT margins; INCOME inequality; LAND use; AGRICULTURAL productivity; DEVELOPMENT economics
- Publication
Land Economics, 1967, Vol 43, Issue 2, p243
- ISSN
0023-7639
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/3145251