North American Free Trade: Assessing the Impact

Reviewed by William Diebold, Jr.

A conference concentrating on the comparison of quantitative studies produced "a consensus that the direct economic effects of NAFTA will be small for both Mexico and the United States." But, say the editors, this kind of "static analysis" misses many of the more important dynamic elements of NAFTA, such as the effects of a large inflow of new capital and the return of capital that fled Mexico in the early 1980s.