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!

Americans have long been ambivalent toward foreign direct investment in the United States. Foreign multinational corporations may be a source of capital, technology, and jobs. But what are the implications for US workers, firms, communities, and consumers as the United States remains the most popular destination for foreign multinational investment? Theodore H. Moran and Lindsay Oldenski find that foreign multinational firms that invest in the United States are, alongside US-headquartered American multinationals, the most productive and highest-paying segment of the US economy. These firms conduct more research and development, provide more value added to US domestic inputs, and export more goods and services than other firms in the US economy. The superior technology and management techniques they employ spill over horizontally and vertically to improve the performance of local firms and workers. As the United States wants not only to expand employment but also create well-paying jobs that reverse the falling earnings that many US workers and middle class families have suffered in recent decades, it is more important than ever to enhance the United States as a destination for multinational investors

Over the past decade, foreign direct investment (FDI) around the world has nearly tripled, and with this surge have come dramatic shifts in FDI flows. In Foreign Direct Investment, distinguished economists look at changes in FDI, including historical trends, specific country experiences, developments in the semiconductor industry, and variations in international mergers and acquisitions. Chapters cover such topics as theoretical accounts of FDI patterns, the growth of multinational enterprises, and the FDI experiences of Japan, the United States, and selected developing countries. This volume will interest economists, government officials, and business people concerned with FDI today.