The Empire Struck Back: The Mexican Oil Expropriation of 1938 Reconsidered

Maurer, Noel

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1620043

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The Empire Struck Back: The Mexican Oil Expropriation of 1938 Reconsidered

Harvard Business School BGIE Unit Working Paper No. 10-108

33 Pages Posted: 4 Jun 2010

See all articles by Noel Maurer

Noel Maurer

Harvard University - Business School (HBS)

Date Written: June 4, 2010

Abstract

The Mexican expropriation of 1938 was the first large-scale non-Communist expropriation of foreign-owned natural resource assets. The literature generally makes three assertions: the U.S. government did not fully back the companies, Mexico did not fully compensate them for the value of their assets, and the oil workers benefited from the change in ownership. This paper musters data and evidence that supports only the first of those assertions, and only to a limited extent: the companies devised political strategies that maneuvered Roosevelt into supporting their interests, and they were more than fully compensated by the Mexican government as a result.

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Maurer, Noel, The Empire Struck Back: The Mexican Oil Expropriation of 1938 Reconsidered (June 4, 2010). Harvard Business School BGIE Unit Working Paper No. 10-108, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1620043 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1620043