When technology transfer is costly, a foreign firm and host country government may differ in their preferences over direct entry and acquisition. Government intervention could help induce the socially preferred choice.
This report discusses the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) comprising nine members, two ex officio members, and other members as appointed by the President representing major departments and agencies within the federal executive branch. While the group generally has operated in relative obscurity, the proposed acquisition of commercial operations at six U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World in 2006 placed the group's operations under intense scrutiny by Members of Congress and the public.
"The book investigates foreign direct investment (FDI) strategies in four important emerging economies: Egypt, India, South Africa and Vietnam. These countries liberalized their economies in the 1990s with the intention of attracting greater FDI inflows. This book assesses whether they have been successful in achieving this goal. The authors adopt a comparative perspective and use a large enterprise survey plus three individual case studies in each country. They investigate the strategies of foreign direct investors focusing on the relationship between the investment climate, the mode of entry (acquisition, greenfield or joint venture), company performance, and spillovers to the host economy. The book outlines how the interactions between international businesses and the local policy environment influence the entry strategies of firms. Academics and researchers with an interest in international business, emerging markets, economic development and strategic management will find this book informative and insightful."--BOOK JACKET.
Foreign direct investment is an important issue that has attracted the attention of academic and professional economists as well as politicians and policy makers. In Foreign Direct Investment , Imad A. Moosa presents a survey of the vast body of literature and ideas relating to foreign direct investment that will be invaluable as a reference work for all these groups. He provides concise definition and analysis of the theories behind foreign direct investment, and considers factors affecting its implementation. The impact of foreign direct investment on economic development, host countries and the growth of multinationals, together with methods for evaluating foreign direct investment projects are discussed. The book is based on the experiences of and the empirical evidence pertaining to foreign direct investment in a large number of countries, and includes case studies on specific projects.
During the 1990s, the governments of South Asian countries acted as ‘facilitators’ to attract FDI. As a result, the inflow of FDI increased. However, to become an attractive FDI destination as China, Singapore, or Brazil, South Asia has to improve the local conditions of doing business. This book, based on research that blends theory, empirical evidence, and policy, asks and attempts to answer a few core questions relevant to FDI policy in South Asian countries: Which major reforms have succeeded? What are the factors that influence FDI inflows? What has been the impact of FDI on macroeconomic performance? Which policy priorities/reforms needed to boost FDI are pending? These questions and answers should interest policy makers, academics, and all those interested in FDI in the South Asian region and in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
This handbook provides a comprehensive and non-technical explanation of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), later legal instruments, current policy issues and the relationship between TRIPS and public health. It is aimed at an audience including government officials and policy-makers, non-governmental organizations, academics and students.
The importance of international technology diffusion (ITD) for economic development can hardly be overstated. Both the acquisition of technology and its diffusion foster productivity growth. Developing countries have long sought to use both national policies and international agreements to stimulate ITD. The 'correct' policy intervention, if any, depends critically upon the channels through which technology diffuses internationally and the quantitative effects of the various diffusion processes on efficiency and productivity growth. Neither is well understood. New technologies may be embodied in goods and transferred through imports of new varieties of differentiated products or capital goods and equipment, they may be obtained through exposure to foreign buyers or foreign investors or they may be acquired through arms-length trade in intellectual property, e.g., licensing contracts. 'Global Integration and Technology Transfer' uses cross-country and firm level panel data sets to analyze how specific activities exporting, importing, FDI, joint ventures impact on productivity performance.
This publication contains three case studies which seek to disseminate information on best practices for promoting transfer of technology in developing countries, in order to help establish new industries which can successfully compete in the global economy. These studies were carried out under the UNCTAD/UNDP Programme on Globalization, Liberalization and Sustainable Human Development, and deal with aircraft manufacturing in Brazil, the pharmaceuticals sector in India and the automobile industry in South Africa.
Governments often use direct subsidies or tax credits to encourage investment and promote economic growth and other development objectives. Properly designed and implemented, these incentives can advance a wide range of policy objectives (increasing employment, promoting sustainability, and reducing inequality). Yet since design and implementation are complicated, incentives have been associated with rent-seeking and wasteful public spending. This collection illustrates the different types and uses of these initiatives worldwide and examines the institutional steps that extend their value. By combining economic analysis with development impacts, regulatory issues, and policy options, these essays show not only how to increase the mobility of capital so that cities, states, nations, and regions can better attract, direct, and retain investments but also how to craft policy and compromise to ensure incentives endure.
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.