Regulating Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America

Foreign investment plays a central role in Latin America’s current and future economic situation. Inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region have increased significantly and steadily over the past decade, as many developed countries (including those in North America, Europe and Asia) have begun to see Latin America as a key component of their economic growth strategies. This has resulted in an increase of FDI in sectors beyond traditional natural resource extraction, large-scale telecommunications and financial services. New trends indicate that FDI could spur economic dynamism in the region, such as increasing foreign investment in research and development and demand for more innovative consumer products. A potential growth path for the region includes continued inflows of foreign capital as a driver of increased domestic demand (de la Torre et al. 2013), and increased FDI inflows might offer significant productivity-enhancement potential through knowledge spillovers under certain circumstances (Lederman et al. 2013).