文档介绍：Journal of Development Studies,
Vol. 45, No. 7, 1165–1183, August 2009
Employment Effects of FDI in Mexico’s
Non-Maquiladora Manufacturing
ANDREAS WALDKIRCH*, PETER NUNNENKAMP** &
JOSE EDUARDO ALATORRE BREMONT***
*Department of Economics, Colby College, Waterville, ME, USA, **Kiel Institute for the World
Economy, Germany, ***Universidad Nacional Auto´noma de Mexico (UNAM), Economia, Mexico City,
Mexico
Final version received December 2008
ABSTRACT This paper analyses whether foreign direct investment (FDI) has contributed to
employment generation in Mexico’s non-maquiladora manufacturing sector. Drawing on highly
disaggregated FDI and employment data, we estimate dynamic labour demand functions for blue
and white collar workers, including FDI as well as its interaction with major industry
characteristics. FDI has a significantly positive, though quantitatively modest impact on
manufacturing employment in Mexico. This applies to both white collar and blue collar
employment. The employment enhancing effects of FDI are larger in export oriented industries.
In more capital-intensive industries, the employment effect of FDI remains positive for blue collar
workers but not white collar ones.
I. Introduction
While Mexico has been essful in attracting significant amounts of foreign direct
investment (FDI), it is widely believed that FDI has contributed little to employment
generation (Gallagher and Zarsky, 2004). There is evidence that FDI in the
maquiladoras has been associated with skill-biased technical change by increasing
the wage premium for skilled workers (Mollick, 2008b), but this does not consider
employment. The analysis in this paper offers an important contribution to the
debate on the merits of FDI in Mexico by estimating its employment effects in the
context of dynamic labour demand functions. Employment generation often appears
to be the major motive underlying the fierce petition for FDI
inflows (Ruane and Go¨rg, 1999; Oman, 2001). It is