Özet:

The objective of the study is to determine the effect of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and competitiveness on bilateral trade of Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru) with their main commercial destinations for the 2006-2012 period.  In the second stage, the article analyzes how trade and FDI affect Latin American productivity. Since the commercial flow of a country with the rest of the world and its competitiveness are endogenous variables, an extended gravitational model will be applied in two stages and estimated using static panel data. In conclusion, the greater FDI and global competitive achievement of a Latin American country, the greater its bilateral trade. In addition, in the second stage, it is confirmed that commercial opening directly influences the productivity of these countries which, together with FDI, guarantees a sustained increase in productivity.

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