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Martin Arias Loyola

Research subject

Thesis title: Mining, multinational corporations and regional development: enclave formation through the asymmetrical bargaining power.

Primary supervisor: Professor Nick Phelps
Secondary supervisor: Dr Jung Won Sonn
Sponsor: Becas Chile
Starting date: January 2012
Projected completion date: January 2016

The globalisation process has changed the way in which states and MNCs bargain, especially because of the incorporation of international institutions that have affected this process. These institutions have favoured the MNCs’ interests over the local’s, which has historically led to enclave formation in mining regions. Nowadays, MNCs have the power to capture value, public goods and knowledge right at the start of the mining GPN, creating new ways of enclave where they do not need to build a company town around the ore. Weak governments and lax legislation are a result of the lack of bargaining power that local institutions and actors have, leading to an unsustainable development in mining regions. This research will address these1 issues updating the enclave model from an evolutionary perspective, taking into account the bargaining process between MNCs and local institutions in the mining GPN as a critical variable. 

The bargaining model will be updated and some aspects of the GPN will be studied, all in order to provide a new enclave model that can be used to explain the current situation of several underdeveloped mining regions. This research will utilize a case study methodology, where the Antofagasta Region (Chile) will be analysed. This region is particularly interesting because its historical dependency to mining, its enclave presence and its wealth in terms of minerals deposits (it has the biggest supplies of copper, nitrates, lithium and molybdenum in the world).

Publications and other work

Published Works

  • Coauthor of the book “La Pyme de la Región de Antofagasta: 2005 - 2009” in the chapter “Prácticas de Gestión y Modernización Empresarial de las  Pymes de la Región de Antofagasta”. Universidad Católica del Norte, 2012.
  • Coauthor of the book “Región de Antofagasta: Pasado, Presente y Futuro “in the chapter “Industrialización en la Historia de Antofagasta”. Universidad Católica del Norte, 2010. I.S.B.N 978-956-287-289-8.
  • Coauthor of the book “Evolución de la PYME de la Región de Antofagasta: Hacia una Demografía del Tejido Productivo Local” in the chapter “Análisis de las PYMES de la Región de Antofagasta Desaparecidas entre el 2005 y 2007”. Universidad Católica del Norte, 2009.

Book Reviews

  • Martin Sokol (2011). Economic Geographies of Globalisation: A Short Introduction, Regional Studies, 46:10, 1420-1421.

Papers

  • Arias, M., Atienza, M. and Cademartori, J (2011). Large Mining and Local Development: Between the Enclave and Cluster, Master of Regional Science Thesis. Universidad Católica del Norte. Journal of Economic Geography (under revision).

Conference Presentations

  • Arias, M., Atienza, M. and Cademartori, J (2012). Large Mining and Local Development: Between the Enclave and Cluster.  RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2012, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
  • Arias, M., Atienza, M. and Cademartori, J (2011). Large Mining and Local Development: Between the Enclave and Cluster. Annual Meeting of the Chilean Society of Regional Studies 2011, Concepción, Chile.
  • Arias, M., Atienza, M. and Cademartori, J (2011). Large Mining and Local Development: Between the Enclave and Cluster. 23rd Annual Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Socio – Economics, Madrid, Spain.
  • Cademartori, J. and Arias, M. (2010). Enclaves y Modernización: La Minería Extranjera en la Región de Antofagasta. Annual Meeting of the Chilean Society of Regional Studies 2010, Talca, Chile.
  • Cademartori, J. and Arias, M. (2010). Enclaves y Modernización: La Minería Extranjera en la Región de Antofagasta. Congress of Regional Studies, Iquique, Chile.
  • Arias, M. (2009). Método de Evaluación del PTI “Cluster Minero” a través de la representación gráfica del análisis de multiplicadores Input – Output. Annual Meeting of the Chilean Society of Regional Studies 2009, Antofagasta, Chile.

Academic Experience

Lecturer: Undergraduated level courses for Business School. Lecturing and grading:
Introduction to Economics, Macroeconomics I, Macroeconomics II, Microeconomics, Economics for the High Direction, Research Methodology.