How the Crowding-out Effect Hypothesis Stands Under a Financial System Liberalised: The Mexican Economy Case

Abstract

This paper revisits the financial-liberalisation hypothesis predicting one negative effect of public investment on private investment, which led to the de-regularisation of the financial system in Mexico and many other Less-developed Countries (LDCs) so as to probe whether such tenet hold today even when the role played by the public sector has evolved from having a direct intervention in credit allocation scheme to the fulfilment of a limited duties such as the surveillance of the money and capital markets under a financial liberalization environment. Considering Mexico as a case study, an econometric exercise over the 1970-2019 period is tried crunching official statistical data. Besides a brief introduction, the second section discusses theoretical issues concerning the effects of public investment on private investment, likewise some empirical work done in this field. The third section develops the methodology used to taste the net effect of public investment on private investment and presents also the results estimates. Finally, some conclusions derived from the empirical evidence found in the analysis and a brief discussion are laid down.