Trade Competitiviness, Productivity and Institutional Reforms in Latin America, 1950-2003

The institutional reforms Latin American countries have been oriented towards globalization of trade, improving financial and labor markets, developing and comprehending the use of public resources. The paper reviews the approach to trade policy in early reforms period and evolution of thoughts, integrating the economic and structural reforms in Latin America through the analysis of spatial and temporal data referring to the period 1950-2003. The study shows that there have been mixed effects of institutional reforms on the overall economic growth of the Latin American countries. However, the trend in the growth of export in the selected countries has been positive but slow.