Chilean Export of Lithium Carbonate: Production Chain and Market Variables

Abstract

The lithium carbonate, presents an increase in price and demand, however, there is not studies where an equation is proposed that allows modeling the Chilean exported behavior of the mineral. This study is put forward an equation that allows to model the lithium carbonate exports in addition to identify the most influence variables in the commercial exchange of that product between two countries, using the extended gravitational model. The estimated model is not consistent with the gravitational model theory. This is because lithium carbonate is a manufacturing input and the costs of transporting and importing do not influence the volume that is imported. This research has opened new study proposal; such as improve the lithium carbonate export estimation taking into consideration the problem of zero observations.