The export performance of multinational corporations in Mexican industry

The role of multinational corporations in exporting manufactures from underdeveloped countries has been held up as a major contribution by supporters of the multinationals and played down by their critics. Three aspects of export behaviour are analysed: the share of output exported, the destination of exports and the import content of exports. It is shown that in most sectors locally owned firms have a greater propensity to export than foreign subsidiaries, that subsidiaries send a higher share of their exports to regional markets and that their exports have a higher import content than those of local firms.