Resumen de Foreign direct investment in Latin America and The Caribbean: an empirical analysis

Kevin Williams

• Competition for foreign direct investment (FDI) among developing countries has intensified in recent years. Using a sample of 68 developing countries across dif ferent regions, with data from 1975-2005, this paper investigates whether Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) dif fers from non-LAC regions in regard to determinants of FDI; the evidence suggests that there are dif ferences. In particular, the stock of infrastructure attracts FDI to LAC and constraints on the executive and high debt discourage FDI to non-LAC. These findings are robust to sample size, dif ferent estimators, endogeneity, and country fixed ef fects.