Foreign Direct Investment Democracy And Development

Using quantitative data, this book addresses internationalisation by focussing on the impact of Foreign Direct Investment and democracy on economic development and the effects of economic internationalisation on democracy.

What makes a country attractive to foreign investors? To what extent do conditions of governance and politics matter? This book provides the most systematic exploration to date of these crucial questions at the nexus of politics and economics. Using quantitative data and interviews with investment promotion agencies, investment location consultants, political risk insurers, and decision makers at multinational corporations, Nathan Jensen arrives at a surprising conclusion: Countries may be competing for international capital, but government fiscal policy--both taxation and spending--has little impact on multinationals' investment decisions. Although government policy has a limited ability to determine patterns of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, political institutions are central to explaining why some countries are more successful in attracting international capital. First, democratic institutions lower political risks for multinational corporations. Indeed, they lead to massive amounts of foreign direct investment. Second, politically federal institutions, in contrast to fiscally federal institutions, lower political risks for multinationals and allow host countries to attract higher levels of FDI inflows. Third, the International Monetary Fund, often cited as a catalyst for promoting foreign investment, actually deters multinationals from investment in countries under IMF programs. Even after controlling for the factors that lead countries to seek IMF support, IMF agreements are associated with much lower levels of FDI inflows.

The type of government and the interplay of macro- and microlevel political institutions affect a country’s ability to attract foreign investment

Contents: 1 The MAI and Its Implications for Canadians 2 Multilateral Deregulation of Investment 3 The MAI and Competitive Austerity 4 The MAI and Labour Standards 5 The MAI and Environmental Regulation 6 The MAI and National and International Development 7 The MAI and Canada - Sectoral Impacts

What makes a country attractive to multinational corporations?

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.

In this cutting-edge analysis of foreign direct investment (FDI), Moran--one of the acknowledged experts in this area--questions traditional econometric measures of foreign direct investment flows, identifies flaws in past research, elaborates on how the latest research has moved More ... into new territory, and provides a first look at what new research has uncovered. Moran concentrates on FDI in the manufacturing and assembly sector, and discusses if FDI in manufacturing raises the productivity of host country economic activities, if FDI makes the host more competitive in new sectors, and generates externalities that benefit local firms and workers. He provides important new data on the kinds of activities, types of jobs, and level of wages associated with multinational manufacturing investment. This volume dissects the market failures associated with the contemporary idea of development as selfdiscovery, and addresses the tricky question of whether to provide incentives for FDI. In addition, he provides a novel reassessment of the debate about FDI crowding-out or crowding-in domestic investment. This book provides insight and lessons for developing and developed countries, NGOs, the corporate responsibility community, and multilateral lending institutions

Are foreign investors the privileged citizens of a new constitutional order that guarantees rates of return on investment interests? Schneiderman explores the linkages between a new investment rules regime and state constitutions – between a constitution-like regime for the protection of foreign investment and the constitutional projects of national states. The investment rules regime, as in classical accounts of constitutionalism, considers democratically authorized state action as inherently suspect. Despite the myriad purposes served by constitutionalism, the investment rules regime aims solely to enforce limits, both inside and outside of national constitutional systems, beyond which citizen-driven politics will be disabled. Drawing on contemporary and historical case studies, the author argues that any transnational regime should encourage innovation, experimentation, and the capacity to imagine alternative futures for managing the relationship between politics and markets. These objectives have been best accomplished via democratic institutions operating at national, sub-national, and local levels.