FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT AND ITS DETERMINANTS IN THE CHILEAN CASE: SINGLE BREAK UNIT ROOT AND COINTEGRATION ANALYSIS

This paper examines the major economic and institutional factors underlying the surge in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to Chile during recent decades. It presents econometric evidence for the 1960-2003 period which indicates that market-based 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 Chilean economy. Single break unit root and cointegration analysis suggest that market size, the real exchange rate, the debt-service ratio, the secondary enrollment ratio, physical infrastructure, 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. The paper also addresses the long-term negative effects which rapidly growing profit and dividend remittances may have on the financing of capital formation and the Chilean balance of payments.