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482. The Missing Links between Foreign Investment and Development: Lessons from Costa Rica and Mexico
- Author:
- Kevin Gallagher and Eva Paus
- Publication Date:
- 02-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
- Abstract:
- A developing country will derive long-lasting development benefits from FDI only, if there is the right coincidence between its location-specific assets and TNCs\' global interests, and the right match between the country\'s national linkage capability and TNCs\' strategic interest in domestic sourcing. We argue that Costa Rica and Mexico have been very successful in attracting high-tech FDI due to the cumulative results of past development policies, proximity to the U.S., and trade arrangements. However, a combination of pervasive market failures, government inaction, and changes in TNC strategies explains why the two countries have not been able to reap lasting benefits from high-tech FDI. We conclude that pro-active government policies have to be an integral part of any FDI-linked development strategy. Pro-action is needed to attract FDI, to promote indigenous linkage capability, and to enhance key location-specific assets on an on-going basis in the context of a coordinated policy framework.
- Topic:
- Economics and Markets
- Political Geography:
- Central America, North America, and Mexico
483. Latin American Catholicism in an Age of Religious and Political Pluralism: A Framework for Analysis
- Author:
- Frances Hagopian
- Publication Date:
- 12-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This article identifies and proposes a framework to explain the responses of Latin America's Roman Catholic churches to a new strategic dilemma posed by religious and political pluralism. Because the church's goals of defending institutional interests, evangelizing, promoting public morality, and grounding public policy in Catholic social teaching cut across existing political cleavages, Church leaders must make strategic choices about which to emphasize in their messages to the faithful, investment of pastoral resources, and alliances. I develop a typology of Episcopal responses based on the cases of Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Mexico, and explain strategic choices by the church's capacity to mobilize civil society, its degree of religious hegemony, and the ideological orientations of Catholics. The analysis draws from 620 Episcopal documents issued since 2000.
- Topic:
- Development, Government, and Religion
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, Argentina, South America, Latin America, Mexico, and Chile
484. Theater and Radical Politics in Beirut, Cairo, and Alexandria: 1860-1914
- Author:
- Ilham Makdisi
- Publication Date:
- 10-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
- Abstract:
- In the last days of October 1909, a play celebrating the life and work of Francisco Ferrer was performed in Beirut. Ferrer, a Spanish social and political activist whose ideas combined elements of anarchism and socialism, had been executed three days before. Ferrer was a pedagogue who had created a modern curriculum and established modern schools in Barcelona based on the principle of “class harmony,” a project very similar to the ideas behind the Université Populaire that appeared in France at the same time. Ferrer's ideas enjoyed tremendous popularity throughout the world 3 both because of his pedagogy as well as his ideology, which combined Freemasonry, free thinking, a strong class consciousness, anarchism, and anticlericalism. He became an icon of the world's leftist movements in 1909, when he was falsely accused by the Spanish Church and condemned to death because of his alleged involvement in an anarchist “terrorist” attack. His trial and condemnation triggered demonstrations and protests throughout the world, from Italy to Mexico.
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Armed Struggle, Insurgency, and Culture
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, France, Arabia, Spain, Mexico, Beirut, Cairo, and Alexandria
485. Immigration and Insecurity: Post-9/11 Fear in the United States
- Author:
- John Tirman
- Publication Date:
- 06-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- MIT Center for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The attacks of September 11, 2001, transformed the landscape of global security, none more than borders and immigration. The topography of citizenship, belonging, and suspicion instantly changed for Arab and Muslim communities in the United States. They drew the sharp attention of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence services, and that continues. But the public's focus has swung south to scrutinize the U.S.-Mexican border as a source of insecurity. For the most part, the alarms about immigrants as threats are exaggerated. And the policy choices driven by these concerns—much larger border security measures in particular—are costly in a globalized economy and unnecessary for security in any case.
- Topic:
- Security, Migration, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States, Arab Countries, North America, and Mexico
486. Investing in Health for Economic Development: The Case of Mexico
- Author:
- Nora Lustig
- Publication Date:
- 03-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Health is an asset with an intrinsic value as well as an instrumental value. Good health is a source of wellbeing and highly valued throughout the world. Health is not only the absence of illness, but capacity to develop a person's potential. Health is also an important determinant of economic growth. Given the importance of health, both as a source of human welfare and a determinant of overall economic growth, the Popular Health Insurance (Seguro Popular) was first introduced in Mexico as a pilot programme by the federal government in 2001, becoming part of the formal legislation in 2003. This study looks at the current situation, and some of the early findings and improvements made so far with regard to public health coverage in Mexico.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Health
- Political Geography:
- Central America and Mexico
487. Mexico Is Becoming the Next Colombia
- Author:
- Ted Galen Carpenter
- Publication Date:
- 11-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Mexico is a major source of heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine for the U.S. market as well as the principal transit and distribution point for cocaine coming in from South America. For years, people both inside and outside Mexico have worried that the country might descend into the maelstrom of corruption and violence that has long plagued the chief drug-source country in the Western Hemisphere, Colombia. There are growing signs that the “Colombianization” of Mexico is now becoming a reality.
- Topic:
- Crime and Health
- Political Geography:
- Colombia, South America, Central America, and Mexico
488. What Iraq and Argentina Might Learn from Each Other
- Author:
- Anna Gelpern
- Publication Date:
- 06-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- Financial collapse usually triggers a flurry of market, academic, and policy innovation. The Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s produced the Brady Bonds and led to the rise of today's emerging markets. In the late 1990s, crises in Pakistan, Ecuador, and Ukraine helped teach the markets how to restructure international sovereign bonds. Crises in Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, and throughout East Asia raised doubts about the international system's ability to manage vast and rapid capital flows, and prompted a big-picture reassessment under the rubric “international financial architecture.” This included most famously the sovereign bankruptcy proposals discussed elsewhere in this volume.
- Topic:
- Development and Economics
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Middle East, East Asia, Brazil, South America, Latin America, and Mexico
489. A Silent Tsunami: The Urgent Need for Clean Water and Sanitation
- Author:
- William K. Reilly and Harriet C. Babbitt
- Publication Date:
- 07-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Aspen Institute
- Abstract:
- Few issues matter more to public health, economic opportunity, and environmental integrity than the availability of clean water and sanitation. With the 4th World Water Forum scheduled for Mexico City in March 2006, the Aspen Institute and the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University conducted a multistakeholder dialogue to help highlight the importance of global water issues, suggest steps to provide services more rapidly and effectively, and to identify and draw attention to constructive ways the US government and other US participants can take part in the Forum.
- Topic:
- Development, Environment, Government, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- United States and Mexico
490. Dawning of a New Era: The LNG Story
- Author:
- Henry Lee
- Publication Date:
- 04-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Spurred on by higher natural gas prices and a growing demand for cleaner fuels, interest in new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities has mushroomed. At the end of 2004, over forty new receiving and regasification stations were being proposed in the United States, and another ten were seeking siting approvals in Mexico and Canada. Even if less than ten percent of these projects are approved and built, more than twenty percent of United States gas demand may be supplied by LNG facilities by 2012. On the production side, the number of countries contemplating the construction of liquefaction facilities has doubled, and existing producers are scurrying to build more and larger facilities.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, and Energy Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Canada, and Mexico