This paper aims to focus on the effects of economic integration in Latin America on the

extensive and intensive margins of trade, by following the methodology introduced in

Baier, Bergstrand and Feng (2011). The analysis is performed for eleven member

countries of the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA). In order to do so, we

use panel data for bilateral exports of goods from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,

Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela to a large group

of trading partners over the period 1962-2005.

Unlike other papers which study the effect of integration agreements on trade margins

only in industrial manufacturing, we focus in three different sectors: a) primary goods

and manufactures of agricultural origin; b) manufactures of industrial origin and c)

mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials.