During the second year of the Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) Program, students must complete the Second Year Policy Analysis (SYPA). Students choose a current development issue of interest to them, select their faculty advisor, and draw on the tools of economics, management, and institutional analysis to define the problem, analyze the evidence, and produce practical policy recommendations.
Miguel de Iruarrizaga MPA/ID 2025 and Pablo Eguiguren MPA-ID/MBA (HBS) 2025 are now implementing the ideas first proposed in their SYPA in their home country, Chile. Read about their SYPA below.
Please describe your SYPA.
Our SYPA examines bottlenecks in Chile’s permitting system to identify which permits most constrain large-scale mining investment, with the objective of unlocking the country’s economic potential and helping the global green energy transition. By combining environmental approval data with administrative permit records, we show that a small number of sectoral permits—especially those related to Chile’s General Water Directorate (DGA)—account for a disproportionate share of delays. We then diagnose the organizational and technological causes of these delays and propose reforms to make the system more efficient, without passing new laws or changing environmental protection standards.
How did you present your ideas to the chief economist of the government-elect of Chile?
From the beginning of the SYPA process, we wanted our work to have an impact. We knew that the coming elections were a big opportunity, and therefore one of our goals was for our SYPA to reach the candidates and their teams. As graduation was approaching, we contacted former Minister of Economy of Chile José Ramón Valente, who loved the project and fully supported us. We put together a small team to both deepen and expand the scope of our SYPA, and we got to work. This project became a very detailed Investment Reactivation Plan with 26 proposals for four different government agencies. With the help of José, we presented the plan to two campaign teams. The last presentation was to Jorge Quiroz, the now-appointed finance minister, who loved the initiative and embraced our ideas.
How will your SYPA now be implemented in Chile?
Federico Sturzenegger gave us a critical piece of advice: if you want your ideas to be implemented, you must present them as if they are ready to go. The plan that we presented to Quiroz was exactly that. We didn’t just diagnose problems or propose new policies; we delivered actionable items, wrote changes to be made to the regulation, and identified the key people to engage with on the first day of government.
“We didn’t just diagnose problems or propose new policies; we delivered actionable items, wrote changes to be made to the regulation, and identified the key people to engage with on the first day of government.”
What challenges did you face during this process?
This was a very long process, and we had some challenges at the beginning. We started with a very wide horizon of problems to tackle, and it took us some time to find the “binding constraint” on which to focus our efforts. We also struggled with getting accurate data and finding experts to talk to, but we had help from many people along the way, including folks from the very same agencies we were “investigating." One of the lessons we learned was that if you approach a challenge with an open mind and a sincere motivation to help, most people will be open and offer to help.
What are you proudest of from this process?
We started the SYPA with one goal: for it to be useful so that we could help Chile. We are very proud to see that our work and effort have led to policies that will be implemented and, hopefully, will have a meaningful impact.
