Browsing by Author "Gonzalez, Ricardo"

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    Fewer but Younger: Changes in Turnout After Voluntary Voting and Automatic Registration in Chile
    (2022) Cox, Loreto; Gonzalez, Ricardo
    Electoral rules are assumed to influence turnout. However, assessing this empirically is challenging because they rarely change and, when they do, counterfactuals are hard to come by. In 2012, Chile moved from voluntary and permanent registration and mandatory voting to automatic registration and voluntary voting. We study how electoral rules influence turnout by analyzing variations in turnout for presidential elections before and after this reform, with an original approach and using novel data. We estimate changes attributable to voluntary voting among the registered population as the increase in abstention rates among them and changes attributable to both automatic registration and voluntary voting among the non-registered population as the increase in turnout among them. We estimate counterfactual abstention and registration rates based on past behavior and use bounds to account for uncertainty. Our estimates suggest that while automatic registration and voluntary voting brought 7.1% of eligible population who were unregistered to the polls, voluntary voting pulled away 12% who were previously registered. The explicit purposes of this reform were to increase turnout and reduce the age bias in voting. We estimate a reduction in turnout of almost 5% of eligible population and a 39% reduction in the age bias of voters.
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    Physical modelling of diversion works for the aysén hydroelectric project Chile
    (2010) Gonzalez, Ricardo; Cienfuegos Carrasco, Rodrigo Alberto; Fernandez J., Bonifacio; Bravo, Jorge; Costas, Carlos; Garces, Octavio
    River diversion characteristics are described for the proposed sites of the Baker 1 and Pascua 2.2 hydro plants in Chile. The results from two scaled physical models (1:70 for the Baker river and 1:60 for the Pascua river) are presented here and an evaluation of performance is given for the diversion works and various types of cofferdam.
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    Spatial Patterns of Productivity and Human Development Potentials for Pinus pinea L.
    (2024) Loewe-Munoz, Veronica; Del Rio, Rodrigo; Delard, Claudia; Gonzalez, Ricardo; Balzarini, Monica
    Pinus pinea (stone pine), a Mediterranean species, is valued for its highly nutritious pine nuts and its ability to adapt to different environmental conditions. The species has been increasingly planted in Chile, where its main ecological requirements are met across a vast area. However, new plantations are established without considering social dimensions. Policymakers can regulate private decisions on tree planting through the appropriate design of economic incentives to foster social well-being. The objective of this work was to describe spatial patterns of potential areas for the cultivation of the exotic nut-bearing conifer P. pinea in central Chile and the possible correlation of those patterns with human development indices. Spatial data layers of the municipality development index (MDI), elevation, edaphoclimatic variables, and stone pine nut's productive potential were overlapped at the municipality scale along 1225 km in central Chile. A spatial principal component analysis (sPCA) was used to integrate multiple dimensions, summarizing covariation structures, and identifying spatial patterns in the study area. Key results showed that spatial patterns of the potential productive index (PPI) were strongly regulated by the spatial pattern of climate and soil variables, whereas the spatial pattern of MDI showed a cryptic pattern and that the three dimensions of MDI-welfare, economy, and education-showed a different spatial movement, especially education and welfare. The results allow us to recommend that public policies boost municipality development through the promotion of P. pinea plantations and should target areas with a high productive potential and low MDI to generate socio-economic improvements. These findings are useful for the strategic spatial planning of the species cropping in Chile.