20.7.05

A exploração das multinacionais

Local consumers are the biggest beneficiaries of market-seeking investment. In nearly every one of our case studies, they enjoyed lower prices or a better selection of goods and services - or both - after foreign companies arrived. The price of passenger cars in China, for instance, declined by more than 30 percent from 1995 to 2001, years when Ford Motor, GM, and Honda Motor entered the market. (But tariffs still keep prices there much higher than they should be.) In Mexico, Wal-Mart's "everyday low prices" ended a long history of hefty margins for the country's leading retailers to such an extent that some analysts now credit the company with helping to reduce the country's inflation rate. In India, the price of air conditioners, televisions, and washing machines fell by around 10 percent in 2001 alone after foreign companies entered the market.