Swollen Permits? Call Chile!

Send us Fan Mail

Permits feel like “just paperwork”, until they quietly become the biggest barrier to building, investing, and even basic economic growth. We use Chile’s fight with “permisologia” to show how bureaucracy creates delay, uncertainty, and political risk even when the stated goal is safety or environmental protection.
• permits as transaction costs that quietly tax projects and entrepreneurship
• why bureaucracy is not the same thing as government and why it crowds out market coordination
• “permisologia” in Chile and how a one-stop shop becomes many counters
• parallels to India’s license raj and the logic of rent seeking choke points
• Dominga as a case study in shifting rules, scandal, and investment held hostage
• documented GDP and jobs costs from permitting delay and collapsed processing capacity
• Chile’s LMAS reform plan including deadlines, digitization, and sworn declarations with sanctions
• Parkinson’s Law, bike shedding, and why committees obsess over trivial items
• listener letter on commune life and how transaction costs show up inside “one big firm”

Links:

What is "Permisología"? https://comentarista.emol.com/2294117/27242033/Emol-Social-Facts.html

Framework Law (LMAS): https://www.bluefieldresearch.com/research/chile-takes-another-step-towards-mining-reform/

Parkinson's Law and the "Law of Triviality": https://fs.blog/parkinsons-law/

Twin Oaks Community: https://www.twinoaks.org/

If you have questions or comments, or want to suggest a future topic, email the show at [email protected] !

You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz