Although regional integration initiatives have a long history in the world economy, these efforts have expanded significantly since the 1990s. In Latin America and the Caribbean, a wave of regional integration initiatives has included free trade areas, customs unions, and steps towards common markets. The emergence of this "new regionalism"of trade in which global and regional forces complement one another has been driven by such factors as the opening up of economies and structural reforms. This year's edition of Economic and Social Progress in Latin America explores the dimensions of integration, macroeconomic coordination, and the effects of regional integration on productivity, market access, foreign direct investment, infrastructure and income inequality. Topics include subregional integration schemes, the multilateral trade agenda launched in Doha, initiatives such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and interregional agreements with the European Union.
This interdisciplinary edited volume explores the political economy of regionalism in Latin America. It identifies convergent forces which have existed in the region since its very conception and analyses these dynamics in their different historical, geographic and structural contexts. Particular attention is paid to key countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, as well as subregions like the Southern Cone and Central America. To understand the resilience of regionalism in Latin America, this book proposes to highlight four main issues. Firstly, that resilience is linked to mechanisms of self-enforcement that are part of the accumulation of experiences, institution building and common cultural features described in this book as regionalist acquis. Secondly, the elements and driving forces behind the promotion and expression of the regionalist acquis are influenced and shaped by nested systems in which social processes are inserted. Thirdly, when looking at systems, there is a particular influence by national and global ones, which condition the form and endurance of regional projects. Finally, beyond systems, the book highlights the relevance of agents as crucial players in the shaping of the resilience of regionalism in Latin America. This insightful collection will appeal to advanced students and researchers in international economics, international relations, international political economy, economic history and Latin American studies.
Regionalism in Latin America and the Caribbean has experienced transformations over the last few years. After more than a decade of a hegemonic model based solely on free-market principles, the regional and global transformation that occurred in the first decade of the new millennium modified the way of understanding economic development and the insertion of regional blocs in global affairs. Old initiatives have been reconsidered, new schemes have emerged, and new principles going beyond trade issues have modified the norms and processes of regional economic integration. This book reviews these recent transformations to depict and explain the new trends shaping regional blocs and cooperation in the Americas.
Latin America has been central to the main debates on development economics, ranging from the relationships between income inequality and economic growth, and the importance of geography versus institutions in development, to debates on the effects of trade, trade openness and protection on growth and income distribution. Despite increasing interest in the region there are few English language books on Latin American economics. This Handbook, organized into five parts, aims to fill this significant gap. Part I looks at long-term issues, including the institutional roots of Latin America's underdevelopment, the political economy of policy making, the rise, decline and re-emergence of alternative paradigms, and the environmental sustainability of the development pattern. Part II considers macroeconomic topics, including the management of capital account booms and busts, the evolution and performance of exchange rate regimes, the advances and challenges of monetary policies and financial development, and the major fiscal policy issues confronting the region, including a comparison of Latin American fiscal accounts with those of the OECD. Part III analyzes the region's economies in global context, particularly the role of Latin America in the world trade system and the effects of dependence on natural resources (characteristic of many countries of the region) on growth and human development. It reviews the trends of foreign direct investment, the opportunities and challenges raised by the emergence of China as buyer of the region's commodities and competitor in the world market, and the transformation of the Latin America from a region of immigration to one of massive emigration. Part IV deals with matters of productive development. At the aggregate level it analyzes issues of technological catching up and divergence as well as different perspectives on the poor productivity and growth performance of the region during recent decades. At the sectoral level, it looks at agricultural policies and performance, the problems and prospects of the energy sector, and the effects on growth of lagging infrastructure development. Part V looks at the social dimensions of development; it analyzes the evolution of income inequality, poverty, and economic insecurity in the region, the evolution of labor markets and the performance of the educational sector, as well as the evolution of social assistance programs and social security reforms in the region. The contributors are leading researchers that belong to different schools of economic thought and most come from countries throughout Latin America, representing a range of views and recognising the diversity of the region. This Handbook is a significant contribution to the field, and will be of interest to academics, graduate students and policy makers interested in economics, political economy, and public policy in Latin America and other developing economies.
The volume takes a broad view of recent social, political, and economic developments in Latin America. It contains six essays, focused on salient and cross-cutting themes, that try to construct a thread or narrative about the highly diverse region, highlighting its main idiosyncrasies and analyzing where it might be headed in coming years. While the essays recognize considerable advances, they also point out setbacks and missed opportunities that have stood in the way of sustained progress. Strengthening state capacity emerges as a significant challenge.
The book analyses present Latin American issues in their historical course since independence (beginning 1810) and its aftermath, up to the contemporary period. The authors focus on political, economic, social, environmental and cultural developments. It examines the legacies of the past and the multiple changes that have taken place in the last two centuries. Today''s situation suggests that modernization is well under way and will continue. Offering broad insight into present and future concerns, the book enables readers to evaluate potential areas of economic and social growth, as well as assess risks stemming from past events.
'Dent and Dosch have put together a superb volume that explores new dimensions of the world events for the past five decades and take decrypting the processes of regionalism, global system, and world society to a new height. The contributors have enhanced our understanding of how regionalism has been changing, when a world society will be created, and why East Asia's centrality matters in this unfolding drama. Policymakers, academics, and mass media opinion makers will find the book useful, provocative, and refreshing.' – Eul-Soo Pang, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore Ever since the Asia-Pacific transformed from an 'institutional desert' into one of the most networked areas in the world, questions of the region's future and the future of the global system have become closely intertwined. This volume explores the key issues of regional co-operation, economic and political integration, security relations and international affairs within and across the Asia-Pacific. The expert contributors shed critical light on how significant developments are impacting on the global system. In particular, they consider emerging forms of global governance, and how the Asia-Pacific as a region, individual countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and the US, and regional organisations and forums like APEC are shaping the world. Uniquely, the discussion is not limited to East Asia but also takes Latin America prominently into the equation. This timely book will prove to be a stimulating read for academics, students, researchers and policymakers with an interest in Asian studies, development and agriculture, economics, international studies.
Combining an analysis of regionalism from a systemic view with a domestic political-economy analysis, this book sheds light on the new dynamics and emerging configurations of regionalisms and interregionalisms in the post-Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Donald Trump’s presidency has transformed trans-Pacific economic and political relations, contrasting sharply with President Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia’ strategy. Unilateralism and bilateralism have returned to the center stage, at the cost of regionalism, interregionalism, and multilateralism. Understanding these new dynamics requires closer examination of the underlying domestic political economies. Examining ten country case studies of multi-actor agency at the national level, expert contributors argue that trans-Pacific relations should not only be explained in terms of the behavior of the major powers, but that medium powers, and even small countries, can exert influence and occupy strategic nodes and contribute to shaping a new international relations network. Their findings will be of interest to scholars of international relations, international political economy, regionalism, and international economics.
Trade agreements have uncontested relevance as essential instruments governing international trade, yet little attention has been directed towards explaining differences in their content. Deep Integration in Latin American Trade Agreements analyzes the structure, nature, and characteristics of deep integration in trade agreements established by Latin American countries after the crises of 1982 and until 2020 with their regional and extra-regional partners. Ninfa M. Fuentes-Sosa argues that deep integration can be disaggregated into its institutional, operative, and horizontal dimensions (which differ regarding their functions and application level). Empirically, she demonstrates that trade provisions can be mapped, measured, and allocated into their corresponding dimension, providing an understanding of the deep integration structure in Latin America. She claims that the current structure poses challenges for deepening regionalism at a broad scale. Countries working on specific areas over time could diminish obstacles that have prevented them from achieving deeper trade integration. Providing an operational definition and measures of deep integration, this book will be of great interest to scholars, graduate students, and policymakers working in the field of international political economy, trade, and trade politics.
