Empirical evidence on foreign debt, investment, and growth in Mexico, 1980-2003

Abstract

Under some conditions, it is possible that foreign debt can cause fixed investment in a country to decline. Under those circumstances, economic growth will turn negative. This theoretical possibility is known as the debt overhang hypothesis. This study investigates the debt overhang hypothesis for Mexico between 1980 and 2003. Parameter estimation results offer partial empirical evidence in favor of this hypothesis. Simulation results exhibit a high degree of correlation with actual sample data.Foreign debt; growth; applied econometrics; Mexico