This book contains the result of an attempt “to determine what effects, if any, the activities of Nacional Financiera, representing the public sector, have had on the financial structure of business firms in Mexico.” The first four chapters are devoted, respectively, to explanation of the “nature and purpose of study”; the “network of national credit institutions”; “the history and development of Nacional Financiera”; and, “private credit institutions in Mexico.”
The original parts of the book are contained in Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 in which a series of hypotheses with respect to the influence of Nacional Financiera operations on financial structures of private business enterprises are tested. Generally speaking, the results obtained are neither surprising nor very interesting, partly because the hypotheses themselves are poorly structured and partly because the analytical techniques are naive and yield unconvincing results.
The main specific conclusions reached by the author are the following: 1) “Due to the shortage of long-term funds in Mexico, most firms that are not connected with Nacional Financiera are forced into short-term borrowing.” 2) “Firms that have received funds from Nacional Financiera are more highly levered than other firms.” 3) “There was little or no evidence that there is a competitive advantage for a firm to be associated with Nacional Financiera.”
The general conclusion is that “Nacional Financiera has affected the financial structure and operations of some firms in Mexico.”
