ABSTRACT
A competition-oriented economy and efficient government make it possible, within the framework of a long-term strategy, to implement a complex set of dovetailed policies aimed at reducing absolute poverty, expanding employment, and increasing the level of domestic demand. When dynamic industrial development is realized, it is possible, as can be seen in East and Southeast Asia, to achieve a system of basic social security and a clear-cut increase in employment via some such set of policies, despite major progress in productivity. Small and mid-size countries such as Chile have, even in the face of a low level of industrial dynamics, reduced absolute poverty and unemployment while sustaining high medium-term economic growth rates; however, the multiplier effects stemming from the dynamic economic sector are limited. Presupposing the political will to do so, many other DCs will be able to achieve a system of basic social security, and with it a reduction of absolute poverty.
