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Original article: Más allá de los indicadores económicos: Un nuevo modelo de desarrollo

By Nicole Molina Alarcón, Economist PUCV, Master in Public Policies UDP

Every time positive IMACEC data is released, there’s a belief that the country is progressing. However, the discussion should shift from merely how much we grow to who is advancing, who is left behind, what kind of country we are building, and who has the power to define that direction.

In the 1990s, with the return to democracy, Chile structured much of its development strategy around a promise of progress and social mobility. There emerged a strong belief that if the economy grew and people studied, worked, and strove, each generation would live better than the last.

This promise relied on the assumption that economic growth alone would ensure well-being, social mobility, and opportunities for all.

Thirty years later, productivity remains stagnant, unemployment affects thousands of families, young people face an uncertain job market, and accessing housing or envisioning a secure future is increasingly challenging. This reality has undermined trust in institutions and fostered the notion that individuals must fend for themselves.

This sense of stagnation exists paradoxically alongside positive macroeconomic figures. Perhaps because the issue is no longer just how much the economy grows, but rather what kind of economy we are building; development cannot be measured solely by indicators like IMACEC, but by our actual capacity to improve people’s lives.

For too long, we accepted that Chile’s place in the world primarily relied on extracting natural resources and exporting them with minimal transformation, while much knowledge, innovation, and added value developed outside our borders.

This strategy allowed for growth, but it also solidified a dependent economy, lacking productive diversification and the capacity to capture the value generated by its own wealth.

The challenge for Chile now is not merely to achieve higher growth rates. It is to construct a new development model that measures success not just by the volume of what we extract, but by the knowledge we generate, the technology we develop, the national industry we can build, and the quality of life we can guarantee.

Rethinking development also requires a reassessment of the relationship between the economy and nature. For too long, we treated them as separate entities, whereas every growth strategy depends on the availability of water, biodiversity, healthy soils, and territories capable of sustaining life.

In this context, the ecological crisis makes this discussion even more urgent. We are approaching the limits of an economy that has turned nature into a low-cost input and many territories into sacrifice zones to uphold a growth model whose benefits do not always stay where that wealth is produced.

Water, ecosystems, biodiversity, and the ocean are common goods; when they degrade, the repercussions extend to nature, the economy, health, food security, and the opportunities for future generations.

Moreover, an economy that continues to overlook the immense work of care that sustains life daily, disproportionately borne by women, inadequately measures its own development.

International evidence shows that no country currently leading in productivity, innovation, or industrial sophistication reached that status by allowing the market to dictate its development path alone. All of them built industrial policies, strengthened scientific capacities, invested in knowledge, and protected strategic sectors when necessary.

Development has never been spontaneous; it has always been a political choice.

A new development model is not just about discussing economic growth; it involves democratically deciding what kind of country we want to create, who captures the wealth we generate, how we distribute the power to produce it, and what responsibilities we have towards those who will inherit this territory.

Development has always been a political decision, and every political decision necessitates a shared vision for the future.

Nicole Molina Alarcón

La entrada Beyond Economic Indicators: A New Development Model for Chile se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.