What can be said of Latin America and the Caribbean's experiment with regional integration? Did it live up to the expectations? What does this experience say about the regional integration agenda moving forward? Do the tectonic changes undergone by the world economy in the last quarter of a...

Most microeconometric studies available for LAC have focused on measuring the direct impact of trade on plant productivity leaving aside other effects that arise through the market selection process. Additionally, most studies have focused on tariff barriers as the only obstacle to international...

We investigate whether greater microeconomic flexibility facilitates the process of creative destruction in the context of new trade models with heterogeneous firms (Bernard et al., 2003 and Melitz, 2003). In these models, freer trade increases aggregate productivity because high-efficiency...

An increasing body of evidence indicates that an important share of aggregate productivity growth, in both developed and developing countries, arises from the reallocation of resources across plants of different productivity levels. New trade models with heterogeneous firms (Bernard et al., 2003;...

This paper explores the dynamics of convergence in Latin American countries and asks whether there are tendencies for converging to different clubs. The analysis shows clear differences between two groups: a large group of low-to-middle income countries and a small group of rich ountries. The...

The literature examining the effects of domestic transport costs on trade flows is scarce. The few studies available rely mostly on distance-based measures as proxies of transport costs which impede analyzing the trade impacts of transport-infrastructure improvements, a critical aspect in...

Recent trade models with heterogeneous firms (Bernard et al., 2003 and Melitz, 2003) show how lower trade costs can spur aggregate productivity by forcing lower productivity firms out of the market, cutting off the lower tail of the productivity distribution. In this paper we find significant...

Export orientation of multinational corporations (MNCs) has seldom been incorporated in the analysis of spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI). Also, until recently empirical research dealt mainly with intra-industry spillovers from FDI with restrictive treatment of inter-industry...

Export orientation of multinational corporations (MNCs) has seldom beenincorporated in the analysis of spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI).Also, until recently empirical research dealt mainly with intra-industry spilloversfrom FDI with restrictive treatment of inter-industry effects....

Casual evidence suggests that multinational companies increasingly look for places with adequate transport and logistics infrastructure to locate affiliates that participate in cross-border production sharing. Yet, there are no systematic empirical analyses examining how logistics infrastructure...