IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/33572.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Expropriation Without Compensation: Copper in Chile, 1970-1973

Author

Listed:
  • Sebastian Edwards

Abstract

In this essay, I analyze the nationalization of large copper mines during Salvador Allende’s socialist government in Chile in the 1970s. This is one of the earliest cases “nationalization without compensation.” Chile’s legal argument was based on the novel idea that “adequate” payment should be calculated as book value minus “excessive profits.” In turn, excessive profits were defined, for every year, as profits above 12% of book value. I analyze the economic arguments that led to nationalization, and I deconstruct and critically evaluate the methodology used to calculate “excessive profits” and “adequate compensation.” I analyze the US and multinationals’ response to Chile’s nationalization policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Edwards, 2025. "Expropriation Without Compensation: Copper in Chile, 1970-1973," NBER Working Papers 33572, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33572
    Note: DEV IFM ITI
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w33572.pdf
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process
    • N51 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33572. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.