Foreign Direct Investment in Mexico during the 1990s: An Empirical Assessment

This paper examines the major economic and institutional factors underlying the surge in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to Mexico during the 1990s. It presents evidence that indicates that market-friendly economic reforms and major changes in the institutional-legal status of foreign capital are, in large measure, responsible for the rapid increase in FDI inflows to leading sectors of the Mexican economy. The econometric results presented in the paper suggest that market size, the real exchange rate, and institutional reforms such as the elimination of restrictions on profit and dividend remittances and the implementation of a selective debt conversion program are economically significant in explaining the variation in FDI inflows to the country. Finally the paper addresses the long-term negative effects that rapidly growing profit and dividend remittances may have on the financing of capital formation and the Mexican balance of payments.