Attracting Foreign Direct Investment to Countries of Latin America: A Comparative Study The Cases of Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba

<p>Foreign Direct Investment: FDI) brings benefits to host countries' populations, using job creation, opportunities for education, training, and technology. The host country benefits from FDI inflows, improving its economy, introducing new technology, organizational and managerial skills that help domestic companies while improving its political institutions. This author chose five countries of Latin America with different political systems and economic policies: Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba and Costa Rica. The goal of this thesis is to find out what kind of political systems and social environments in Latin America are best for attracting FDIs, and what are the obstacles those Latin American countries in non-democratic and authoritarian governments confront when trying to attract FDI. This author researched data and multiple surveys with MNCs from public, private and non-governmental organizations. The findings of this thesis show that despite the violence and criminality in these countries, Brazil and Mexico are the top ranked countries in attracting the most FDI inflows. It was evident that MNCs prefer democratic governments, such as Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica over authoritarian governments because the political and economic stability that democratic governments offer. Latin American countries with democratic institutions, free market regulations and an educated, technological trained work force are better prepared to attract FDI. MNCs avoided countries with socialist-authoritarian regimes, such as Cuba and Venezuela, for fear of expropriations, lack of contract enforcement or protection to the investor. Latin American countries must be aware that raising their social and economic outcomes will help them to attract FDI inflows.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

International Affairs

Year dc:date.available

2011

Author dc:creator

• Schiava, Beatriz

Contributors dc:contributor

• Nathan Jensen

• Foreign Direct Investment and Latin America

Language dc:language

English (en)

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7936/K7765CFR

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:openscholarship.wustl.edu:etd-1530