Abstract

The Dollar Invades Europe

The growth in the share of U.S. private business investments going to Europe reflects the fact that U.S. firms have preferred to concentrate their direct investments in the most advanced industrial countries rather than in the underdeveloped areas of the world. This tendency becomes more evident when Canada, a country whose per capita income puts it well outside of the underdeveloped class, is added to Europe; these two areas together accounted for nearly 60 per cent of all U.S. direct investments at the end of 1965. Furthermore, the largest amounts of U.S. direct investments in Europe are in the most industrialized countries. More than half of all U.S. direct investments in Europe at the end of 1965 were in manufacturing, whereas in the rest of the world less than one-third were in this sector.