Business,Governments and Political Risk in South Asia and Latin America since 1970

This article examines how businesses perceived political risk in South Asia and Latin America over the last half century. Employing data from an oral history database at Harvard Business School, the article identifies five major sources of political risk: macroeconomic and policy turbulence, excessive bureaucracy, political instability, corruption, and violence. Marked regional differences were identified in perceptions and responses to risks. Macroeconomic and policy turbulence was the biggest perceived source of risk in Latin America. Excessive bureaucracy was the biggest source of perceived risk in South Asia. South Asian businesses often avoided bureaucracies, while Latin Americans worked with them.