A PROPOSAL TO OBTAIN A LONG QUARTERLY CHILEAN GDP SERIES

An important limitation in order to specify and estimate a macroeconomic model
that describes the Chilean economy resides in using variables with sufficient
number of observations that allow for a reliable econometric estimation. Among
these variables, the GDP constitutes a fundamental magnitude. Nevertheless,
for this variable there is not quarterly information before 1980. This paper
computes quarterly GDP series for the period 1965-1980 using the approach by
Casals et al. (2000). As result, the new series incorporates the cyclical dynamic
in the quarterly series later to 1979 respecting, in addition, all the annual existing
information before the above mentioned period.