Foreign Capital in Latin America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Alan Taylor

No 9580, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper examines the history of foreign investment in Latin America in the two centuries since independence. Investment flows to the region were sometimes large and always volatile. Symptoms of overborrowing, sudden stops, debt, default and crises have been evident from the beginning. In general the economies in the hemisphere struggled for most of the nineteenth century to develop reputations for macroeconomic stability and sound finance, and foreign capital was thus repelled for the long periods. In the twentieth century, most of the region, like the rest of the world, turned inward and against foreign capital markets, a policy trend that emerged in the interwar period and has only recently begun to reverse. These historical perspectives shed light on the region's current relative isolation and its future economic challenges.

JEL-codes: F21 F33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fin, nep-his and nep-mfd
Note: DAE IFM ITI
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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