Relationship between trade openness and poverty level in Latin America: an analysis during the period 1990-2013

Abstract

In recent decades, the economic and social indicators of most Latin American countries have shown significant changes. This paper analyses the behavior of openness to trade and its effect on poverty. As is well known, different factors explain the changes in the level of poverty; in this paper a simple model studies the effect of an increased openness to international trade on poverty. Thus, the sequence analysis, openness to trade, growth GDP, growth GDP/capita lower unemployment, reduction of poverty, shows that openness to trade contributes to some extent to explain the positive performance of poverty.