The negotiation of rules and disciplines established in the normative body of government procurement agreements has the aim of ensuring that the principles of national treatment and non-discrimination are fully enforced in all the steps and procedures that are present in the tendering processes...

This document summarizes the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) experience as one of the main sources of multilateral development financing in Latin America and the Caribbean. From 2000 to 2005, total financing for economic, social and institutional development projects amounted to US$38.7...

Some key criteria in the optimal currency area literature are that countries should join a currency union if they have closer international trade links and more symmetric business cycles. However, both criteria are endogenous. Frankel and Rose (1998) find that trade intensity increases cycle...

The purpose of this paper is, precisely, to reflect on the most appropriate policies to take advantage of the economic welfare that may originate from an integration process in favor of lesser-developed partners.Abstract: Este documento es parte de una serie de trabajos comisionados por el Banco...

Based on research in linguistics and psychology I use language speech as a reflection of acculturation. I use individual and city-level data from the Lake Ontario area in Canada and study the determinants of cultural assimilation. I focus on education, age, income, and in particular, on some...

This paper discusses the impacts of integration on productivity, specifically within regional agreements. The paper focuses on the economies of Brazil and Mexico and on their performance in the manufacturing sector. The authors estimate firm-level productivity and test its casual links with...

Rules of origin (RoO) are a central topic both in the Inter-Regional Association Agreement negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), and in the 34-country negotiations of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The purpose of this paper is to...

The aim of the paper, based on empirical research in Brazil, is to investigate how supply chains have evolved over time, what factors have driven this evolution and also how a specific set of contractual practices along these chains is linked to access to international markets. The two selected...

The constitution of the United States (U.S.) in effect proscribes both the authority and the responsibility to develop and carry out trade and investment (referred to as commerce in the constitution) policy and negotiate international agreements to two entities - the congress and the...