 Andrew Schrank, Entrepreneurship, Export Diversification, and Economic Reform: The Birth of a Developmental Community in the Dominican Republic Why do different export platforms appeal to different types of investors? The origins of investment in the Dominican Republic’s export processing zones can be traced to two features of their regional environments: the nature of the region’s relationship to the world market and the power of the region’s indigenous capitalist class. The first predicts whether zones will lure investors; the second, who will invest in them. Thus, the traditionally integrated sugar growing southeast and tobacco, cocoa, and coffee growing north feature successful zones, while the traditionally isolated import-substituting and subsistence agricultural regions to the south have unsuccessful ones. The traditionally foreign-dominated southeastern zones are dominated by foreigners, while the traditionally domesticated northern zones are dominated by Dominicans. |