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Begin New Search Topic Political Economy Political Geography Latin America Publishing Institution Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

1. Development and Foreign Investments: Lessons Learned from Mexican Banking

Author:
Jacob Steinfeld
Publication Date:
07-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI) HAS TRANSFORMED MEXICO'S BANKING SYSTEM during the past decade, making it the second largest in Latin America with $165 billion in commercial assets in 2003. In the past four years, Mexico received $25.3 billion of FDI into its financial sector. This composes nearly 40 percent of total FDI inflows into the country. As a result of FDI flowing into the country's financial sector, the Mexican banking system has the highest ratio of foreign ownership in Latin America.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Latin America and Mexico

2. The Political-Economic Conundrum: The Affinity of Economic and Political Reform in the Middle East and North Africa

Author:
Eva Bellin
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
FOR NEARLY TWO DECADES THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA (MENA) has languished in economic stagnation and lassitude. At a time when the logic of market-driven reform and exportoriented growth has become nearly canonical worldwide, the MENA region has proven steadfastly unenthusiastic about reform, shutting itself out of the benefits of economic globalization and falling behind most other regions in economic development. At the same time, the MENA region has distinguished itself by spurning another worldwide trend: democratization. As democracy has spread in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East has remained largely authoritarian, experiencing at most only mild liberalizing political reforms. This dual resistance to world trends is intriguing and resurrects the question of the relationship between political and economic reform. Is this dual resistance to reform coincidental? And what does this resistance say about whether and how Western policy makers and aid practitioners should try to link or sequence their efforts to promote political and economic reform in the region?
Topic:
Globalization and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and North Africa