This paper analyzes the impact of exchange rate levels and exchange rate uncertainty on U.S. foreign direct investment into Latin America. By decomposing exchange rate uncertainty into temporary (short-run) and permanent (long-run) components, we further explore whether the nature of uncertainty matters. Our empirical findings support the view that exchange rate uncertainty has a negative impact on U.S. investment flows into Latin America. Moreover, it is the persistency in uncertainty rather than transitory uncertainty that mostly deters foreign investment. In contrast, investors do not appear to be affected by discrete movements in exchange rate levels.
The determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) have been widely examined. Previous studies have shown that exchange rates play a vital role in the analysis and are a major determinant in the flow of FDI. Most research has focused on examining how exchange rate volatility affects the economies of developed nations. However, little research has been done in understanding the impact of exchange rate volatility on FDI flows to Latin America. Developing countries lack the capital that is needed for further growth. Therefore, FDI is important to developing countries, because it allows them to gain the necessary capital. This paper examines the relationship between exchange rate volatility, political institutions and FDI flows into Latin America across two sectors: food processing, and industrial manufacturing. Empirical results show that exchange rate volatility significantly deters the flow of U.S. FDI into Latin America. Other significant economic factors are U.S. interest rates and openness to trade. Conflict and corruption are the political risk factors that have significant impacts on FDI flows. Conclusions from the paper recommend governments in Latin America to implement macroeconomic polices that promote stability, which could help reduce exchange rate volatility and lower inflation.
Examine the changing nature of foreign investments in Latin America! Generously enhanced with easy-to-understand charts, tables, and graphs, this book covers the ins and outs of foreign direct investment in the established and emerging markets of Latin America. In addition to an overview of direct investment for the entire Latin American region in the 1990s, this valuable book examines specific countries’ experiences with FDI in that decade. These include Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Spending on environmental projects is on the rise, and Latin American nations are at the forefront of this financial whirlwind in the developing world. Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America: Its Changing Nature at the Turn of the Century examines the difficulties of assessing environmental investments. It analyzes the role of international capital in Latin-American environmental issues and discusses the major players, such as the World Bank, in international capital and the environment. Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America presents case studies that illustrate: the history of FDI in Argentina and the impact of the privatization of state-owned enterprises in 1991-1993 the similarities and differences between 1990s FDI in Mexico and Chile the ways that modern investment in Brazil differs in purpose from investment there in previous economic eras how Peru addressed its balance-of-payments crisis in a time when its domestic financial markets were thin and there existed few sources of financing besides banks how Paraguay’s historical lack of infrastructure has hampered FDI efforts there Ecuador’s financial and balance-of-payments crisis-its currency is in free-fall and its financial institutions are on the brink of collapse . . . and much more! Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America packs all this valuable information into a single user-friendly source. As we move into the new millennium, no student, educator, or investor interested in this quickly evolving, volatile market should be without it!
The ratification in 1994 of the North American Free Trade Agreement among the United States, Canada, and Mexico awakened them to look to the south of the US border. This book offers an analysis of trade and liberalization movements in Latin America, and explores macro- and micro-financial implications of investing in Latin American countries.
This document examines the global and regional evolution of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and offers recommendations so these flows can contribute to the region's productive development processes.
Proceedings of the 11th International Forum on latin American Perspectives, which discussed the desirability of foreign direct investment over other flows, such as bank lending.
Foreign direct investment has quadrupled over the past decade in Latin America, which today is one of the world's major investment magnets. Yet the question of which foreign investment policies maximize these inflows remains unanswered. Even though the shift to market-oriented economies has liberalized investment policies throughout Latin America, FDI remains concentrated in only a few countries. Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America evaluates the volume of these new FDI inflows, the factors that attracted them, and their contribution to Latin American development. The book analyzes investment decisions in part through a comprehensive survey of businesses that have recently invested in the region. Case studies of FDI flows to Argentina, Chile and Colombia examine the role of foreign investment liberalization, incentives and performance requirements, complementary policies in such areas as macroeconomics, taxation, foreign exchange and trade, and foreign debt conversion programs.
This title was first published in 2001. This informative volume gives penetrating insight into why multinational enterprises (MNEs) headquartered in Spain invested so heavily in Latin America in the 1990s. This is an invaluable resource for scholars of international political economics, international relations, economics, business and development studies and those with an interest in Spain and Latin America.
