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INTRODUCTION .............................................. 1
EVALUATION CRITERIA ....................................... 1
COUNTRY ASSESSMENTS ....................................... 2
Argentina ............................................... 3
Brazil .................................................. 7
Mexico .................................................. 10
COMPARATIVE RISK EVALUATION ............................... 12
RECOMMENDATION ............................................ 13
REFERENCES ................................................ 14
This research provides a comparative country risk study related to the export of computer software products from the United States to one of three Latin American countries. The three Latin American countries considered are Argentina, Bra zil, and Mexico. The research concludes with a recommendation of one of the three countries as an export target.
The factors upon which the comparative risk evaluation was based were (1) population size, (2) per capita gross domestic product (GDP), (3) external debt load, (4) the significance of foreign trade to the country's economy, (5) political stabil ity, and (6) international copyright protection. In all cases, the best rating was assigned to lowest numerical value. For population size, and per capita GDP, values developed by Poli tical & Economic Risk Consultancy, Inc. (1988) were employed. These values range from "1" for large populations, and high per capita GDPs, to "10" for small populations, and low per capita GDPs.
In this research, a country's external debt load was evaluated in the context of GDP. Five value ranges were employed, as follows: "1" for those countries whose external debts were the equivalent of less than 25 percent of GDP; "2" 2for the 25 49.9 percent range; "3" for the 50 74.9 percent range; "4" for the 75 ...