중남미

The consumers that live near the border Uruguay-Brazil have the possibility of buying goods on both sides of such border. They may replace purchases of one country to the other according to the evolution of prices. In this way, consumers have a lower cost of living compared to the consumers living in the rest of the country. Besides, if the real bilateral exchange rate undergoes important fluctuations, they may take significant advantage of their location. This paper deals with the issue from a theoretical and empirical point of view. On one hand, it presents an adaptation of the cost-of-living index theory to the situation, and on the other hand, the estimates show that the advantages of living on the border were really significant in the last decade.