Três ensaios sobre investimento direto estrangeiro no Brasil

Abstract

In recent decades, especially since 1990, the world economy underwent rapid changes that allowed an unprecedented economic integration. In the globalized economy, foreign direct investment (FDI) plays an important role in the modernization of emerging countries, and the factors that explain why transnational corporations are directed, through FDI flows, to a certain country or region remains a matter of debate. In this context, considering the evolution scenario of foreign direct investment inflow in the Brazilian economy, the institutional peculiarities of Brazil and its investment partners, and the potential effects of FDI on the domestic economy, there are three main issues to be investigated: what are the effects exerted by the quality of the institutional environment and its heterogeneity on FDI inflows in Brazil? As transnational factors, aspects of the firm and the sector have impacted the establishment mode choice of FDI in the national economy? What is the impact of foreign direct investment inflow on the growth of national economic activity, taking into account the absorption capacity of this investment by the Brazilian economy? To evaluate how the quality of the institutional environment and its heterogeneity has affected the entry of FDI in the Brazilian market in the period 1996-2012, estimation of a gravity equation for the flow of foreign investments to Brazil and from its 31 major investment partners were held. The results of this analysis showed that the volume of incoming foreign investment in Brazil is positively affected by the quality of the socio-political and economic-financial institutional environment between the countries of origin and Brazil. Moreover, the economic and financial institutional heterogeneity proved to be negatively related to the inflow of the foreign capital. In the case of research about the factors that influence the establishment mode choice of the FDI in Brazil, an analytical model was elaborated with data for a sample of 160 subsidiaries of foreign multinationals in the Brazilian economy. This model sought to identify, in this process of strategic choice between greenfield investments and acquisitions, the influence of factors related to the firm, the sector of activity and the specific characteristics of the FDI home countries and the xiv Brazilian host market. The results obtained from the study suggest that the size and degree of autonomy of the foreign subsidiary company, the business sector of this firm, the level of economic activity of the target sector, the risk of the host country (Brazil) and also the cultural and institutional distances between the FDI home countries and Brazil were statistically significant in explaining the establishment mode choice of this foreign investment in the Brazilian economy. To evaluate how the initial conditions and the FDI absorption capacity by the Brazilian economy influenced the effects of this foreign investment on economic growth, in the period from 1996 to 2014, estimates were made based on structural VAR model. The main results indicate that for the FDI inflow reach a positive effect on gross domestic product growth (GDP) is necessary to achieve appropriate levels of the local conditions of infrastructure, quality of the institutional environment and developing human capital.