Towards an evaluation of regional integration in Latin America in the 1990s

Regional integration is a fact of life in Latin America and indeed in most of the world. Regional integration is being pursued in Latin America for political reasons as well as for its value as a strategic tool of development in a second best world. No one denies that it can have important costs. But much of the attention on costs has been focused on the short-term up-front costs that are part of any major transformation. These costs must be measured against the benefits, and the bulk of these are expected in the medium to long term through the dynamics of economic transformation. These dynamic processes could be better understood and measured if more attention were given to micro and sectoral field research where much of the process of regional integration takes place. This ground zero research would complement our more aggregate analysis and model building.