MAKING
THE INVISIBLE
VISIBLE
Investment Promotion and Multinational Production in Latin America and the Caribbean
ABOUT THE REPORT
This publication provides researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in international organizations and the private sector with robust new evidence on the effectiveness of investment promotion. Drawing on the results of impact evaluations using novel micro data, the report shows whether and how investment promotion works, what works in investment promotion, and when investment promotion works. The findings it presents will help stakeholders make better, more informed policy, operational, and business decisions.
The results consistently suggest that:
01
Investment promotion has been effective at attracting multinational firms and increasing Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries’ participation in multinational production.
02
How investment promotion agencies (IPAs) are organized, what they do, and how they do it all influence these outcomes.
03
Investment promotion assistance has had a greater impact when it consisted of specialized information services and was given to firms headquartered in countries and operating in sectors in which information barriers were more prominent.
04
Investment promotion has been cost-effective: each US$1 spent on it generated between US$15 and US$56 of additional foreign direct investment.