The Fund for Structural Convergence of MERCOSUR in the field of public investment in Paraguay. Period 2005-2014

This research aims to estimate the contribution of the Fund for Structural Convergence of MERCOSUR (FOCEM) in the field of Public Investment Paraguay for the period 2005-2014. A comparison between the economic and social characteristics of the members of the economic bloc is presented. It focuses, first, to contextualize the asymmetries in integration processes, and on the other is the origin and mechanism of operation of FOCEM as an alternative to reducing socio-economic disparities, through the financing of public investments. Preliminarily the projects in each of the member countries, as well as sweepstakes, fund contributions and local counterpart for each are presented. Only it emphasized in the diagnosis of the current status of projects whose beneficiary is the Paraguay. It is established for each comparative between planned and effectively executed the budget and the main causes of deviations are defined in terms of what was planned in the physical and financial schedules. Through the application of ordinary least squares method, we proceed to quantify the economic impact of the investment made through the FOCEM on public investment and gross domestic product