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.
The international flow of long-term private capital has increased dramatically in the 1990s. In fact, many policymakers now consider private foreign capital to be an essential resource for the acceleration of economic growth. This volume focuses attention on the microeconomic determinants and effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the East Asian region, allowing researchers to explore the overall structure of FDI, to offer case studies of individual countries, and to consider their insights, both general and particular, within the context of current economic theory.
We test the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth in a cross-country regression framework, utilizing data on FDI flows from industrial countries to 69 developing countries over the last two decades. Our results suggest that FDI is an important vehicle for the transfer of technology, contributing relatively more to growth than domestic investment. However, the higher productivity of FDI holds only when the host country has a minimum threshold stock of human capital. In addition, FDI has the effect of increasing total investment in the economy more than one for one, which suggests the predominance of complementarity effects with domestic firms.
The 'boom' in foreign direct investment (FDI) since the mid-1980s, continues to be paramount in policy interest. This book reviews the literature on the nature of FDI and reports the recent results on the performance of FDI plants in order to show the implications for regional economic development. It presents new evidence on the nature and performance of these plants, using a unique dataset that has been constructed and rigorously analyzed by applying econometric techniques. The role of FDI in economic development has long been poorly understood and this book contributes to improving understanding, and is of direct policy relevance. An examination is made of the generation, theory and location of FDI, as well as its implications for regional and national development. In addition to this, analysis is made of the issues at the project and plant levels, related to investment, employment and firm survival.
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.
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.
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.
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 ...
