Explores three related issues of foreign direct investment (FDI) from the point of view of the host country: benefits and risks; the effectiveness of international markets in providing FDI to developing countries; and the kinds of policies that allow countries to capture the benefits and avoid the risks of FDI. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This volume gathers the cutting edge of new research on foreign direct investment and host country economic performance, and presents the most sophisticated critiques of current and past inquiries. It presents new results, concludes with an analysis of the implications for contemporary policy debates, and proposed new avenues for future research.
In development literature Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is traditionally considered to be instrumental for the economic growth of all countries, particularly the developing ones. It acts as a panacea for breaking out of the vicious circle of low savings/low income and facilitates the import of capital goods and advanced technical knowhow. This book delves into the complex interaction of FDI with diverse factors. While FDI affects the efficiency of domestic producers through technological diffusion and spill-over effects, it also impinges on the labor market, affecting unemployment levels, human capital formation, wages (and wage inequality) and poverty; furthermore, it has important implications for socio-economic issues such as child labor, agricultural disputes over Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and environmental pollution. The empirical evidence with regard to most of the effects of FDI is highly mixed and reflects the fact that there are a number of mechanisms involved that interact with each other to produce opposing results. The book highlights the theoretical underpinnings behind the inherent contradictions and shows that the final outcome depends on a number of country-specific factors such as the nature of non-traded goods, factor endowments, technological and institutional factors. Thus, though not exhaustive, the book integrates FDI within most of the existing economic systems in order to define its much-debated role in developing economies. A theoretical analysis of the different facets of FDI as proposed in the book is thus indispensable, especially for the formulation of appropriate policies for foreign capital.
Is foreign direct investment good for development? Moving beyond the findings of his previous book Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Development? (CGD and IIE, 2005), Theodore H. Moran presents surprisingly good --and startlingly bad --news. The good news highlights how foreign direct investment can make a contribution to development significantly more powerful and more varied than conventional measurements indicate. The bad news reveals that foreign direct investment can also distort host economies and polities with consequences substantially more adverse than critics and cynics have imagined. This book rigorously examines the principal controversies and debates about FDI in manufacturing and assembly, extractive industries, and infrastructure, in light of new evidence and analysis. Written in engaging prose, it identifies how developed and developing countries, multilateral lending agencies, and civil society can work in concert to harness foreign direct investment to promote the growth and welfare of developing countries.
This paper provides broader economic underpinnings for the specific issues relating to international discussions or negotiations on investment. It starts with a discussion of the effects of foreign direct investment on development through trade, one third of which takes place within corporate production systems. Then, it explores its impact on development beyond trade. By its nature, foreign direct investment brings into the recipient economy resources that are only imperfectly tradable on markets, especially technology, management know-how, skilled labor, access to international production networks, access to major markets and established brand names. The effects of foreign direct investment on development often depend on the initial conditions prevailing in the recipient countries, on the investment strategies of transnational corporations and on host government policies.--Publisher's description.
This book presents the results of a groundbreaking study on ‘spillovers’ of knowledge and technology from global value-chain oriented foreign direct investment (FDI) in Sub-Saharan Africa, and discusses implications for policymakers hoping to harness the power of FDI for economic development.
The effect on developing countries of the arrival of foreign direct investment (FDI) has been a subject of controversy for decades in the development community. The debate over the relationship between FDI in developing countries and the progress of these countries towards human development is an ongoing and often heated one. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective combining insights from international investment law, human rights law and economics, this book offers an original contribution to the debate. It explores how improvements ...
The importance of foreign investment to China goes well beyond the USD 1.6 trillion in investment received since its opening. The unique analysis in this book shows that the investments, operations, and supply chains of foreign enterprises have accounted for roughly one-third of China’s GDP in recent years, and that foreign enterprises have made numerous additional contributions to China through technological, managerial, business practice, supply chain, and other spillovers. This book shows how China’s leaders managed this process and provides lessons for policy makers interested in building their own economies and tools for companies to demonstrate their contribution to host countries.
This volume examines foreign investment in developing countries both from a theoretical perspective and country specific perspective. It covers strategies to maximize the benefits that draw from the inward investment flow as well as examining foreign investment as a vehicle for international economic integration. The book focuses on foreign investment in the third and fourth largest economies of the world - the Peoples Republic of China and India - in addition to Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries.
