Did Pinochet Cause the Chilean Miracle?

This paper analyzes the impact of Augusto Pinochet's autocracy on the Chilean economy. The study compares outcomes under Pinochet's leadership with those in a synthetic counterfactual made of a weighted average of countries with similar characteristics. I find that, relative to the control, income per capita did not diverge till several years after Pinochet's coup. In contrast, health outcomes measured by life expectancy improved immediately after Pinochet's installment, though only slightly. The evidence I present suggests that the remarkable economic growth did not depend on Pinochet's autocracy. Also, the results on life expectancy show that positive health effects may not be an exclusive consequence of democracies