Foreign investment and spillover efficiency in an underdeveloped economy: Evidence from the Mexican manufacturing industry

In this paper we consider the question whether differences in technical efficiency of Mexican plants in part derive from spillover efficiency associated with foreign direct investment. We use labour productivity as a measure of technical efficiency, and relate this to capital intensity, labour quality and scale of production. We measure the degree of competition by different concentration indices and the final factor determining efficiency is the presence of foreign subsidiaries. If there is a positive relation between efficiency of domestic plants and the foreign participation of various industries we conclude that there is a spillover of technical efficiency. The empirical evidence from the study indicates that this is the case.