Trade integration strategies and welfare. A comparative study of six selected Latin-American countries

Luis Marcelo Florensa and Pedro Moncarz

No 4377, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers from Asociación Argentina de Economía Política

Abstract: Latin America has historically been a region not very open to international trade. However, since the early 1990s, a change in trend has been observed, although it was not homogeneous neither it took place at a similar pace when comparing among countries in the region. In this paper, we estimate and compare the effects that different preferential trade integration strategies have had on consumer welfare, through changes in the prices of the goods and services consumed. Three channels are identified, changes in unit values, and in the quality and variety of the goods that are consumed. For the six countries analyzed here, which correspond to the region's main economies, the results show differences in the effects, both in terms of their magnitude and the channel through which they materialized. Argentina is the worst performer, while Mexico is at the opposite end. Except for Chile, countries that followed a more aggressive integration policy show better results.

Keywords: trade integration; welfare; Latin America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 F15 F6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2020-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int and nep-lam
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aep:anales:4377

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