ASSESSING THE EVOLUTION OF ECONOMIC INTEGRATION: IS MERCOSUR PASSE?

Advances on International Economics

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lugar: New Castle; Año: 2015;

The purpose of this paper is to gain further insight into the economic-side of this ongoing Latin American regional integration project in order to present a comprehensive picture of the current state of regional integration and to see whether MERCOSUR is outmoded. In its attempting to measure the extent to which this geographic space is economically integrated?or it is in the correct path to be integrated?the chapter follows Durán Lima and Alvarez (2008) and Jacobo and Tinti (2013), and it briefly describes the trade dynamism of the four founding members of MERCOSUR during 1991-2012 through some indicators posited by the standard theory. This examination is not a trivial exercise. To find out who sells to whom and the strength of these sales is useful not only to predict the likely outcome of the process itself but also to support confident policy recommendations to the governments. Following Jacobo and Jalile (2013a; 2013b), Gawande et al. (2011) and Olarreaga and Vaillant (2011), the assessment is completed with the exploration of the determinants of tariff and non-tariff barriers with the use of pre and post 2008-crisis trade and protection data. The purpose in this case is to analyze if the determinants of trade barriers?and thus the economic policies?have changed as a consequence of the 2008-crisis or not.