Turkey’s strategic geographical location, the country’s unique Customs Union with the EU and its growing market potential are all factors that create market opportunities for foreign investors. However, despite the presence of necessary economic prerequisites and a diminishing number of barriers to entry, FDI in Turkey has remained quite low. Further, this area has not been covered extensively in the past and has therefore been of interest to study. The purpose of this study has been to identify the determinant factors behind Swedish firms’ investment decisions in Turkey and thus find the advantages that Turkey provides for Swedish firms. The motives and advantages form a proposal for how to best promote Turkey as an interesting market for Swedish firms interested in FDI. A list of Swedish subsidiaries in Turkey was provided by the Swedish Trade Council in Istanbul and came to represent the selected population. The firms were contacted, using both e-mail and telephone, and were requested to respond to an e-mail survey. The final response rate was 22%. The firms’ responses were then analysed together with secondary data such as general facts about Turkey as well as a business climate report about Turkey made by the Swedish Trade Council in November 2005. Regarding the firms’ ownership-specific advantages, the results showed that firm size is irrelevant to the investment decision, while research and development expenditure as well as a long international experience is a condition. Concerning Turkey’s location-specific advantages, market potential, the country’s geographic position, its labour costs and its educational level, are important determinant factors as well as the business climate and the economic climate in Turkey. Agglomeration benefits, in business areas where they exist, and the possibility to receive assistance from external actors when entering a foreign market are also important determinant factors. Furthermore, infrastructure is an important determinant factor, but not of a conclusive significance to the investment decision. In addition to the specified variables, the political situation in Turkey was cited as an important determinant factor. The cultural distance between Turkey and Sweden was the only location-specific factor that proved not to be a determinant factor at all. Conclusively, the Turkish market offers several advantages to Swedish firms wanting to engage in foreign direct investments. First, Turkey has a strategic geographic position that offers proximity to many other markets. Second, the Turkish market potential is alluring and offers opportunities of long term growth. Third, there are possibilities to receive assistance from external actors which facilitates overcoming probable obstacles that might occur when entering the Turkish market. Fourth, the process of establishing a labour force is freed from complications since labour costs are lower in Turkey than in Sweden and the access to highly educated personnel is good. Last, ongoing development in Turkey’s business and economic climate decreases the investment risk involved when entering the Turkish market.

Euroregionai Europoje egzistuoja jau nuo šeštojo XX a. dešimtmečio. Tačiau universalios euroregiono sampratos dar nėra. Pateikiamuose euroregiono apibrėžimuose aiškiai pabrėžiama, kad tai struktūros, turinčios teritorinį apibrėžtumą. Svarbus aspektas – euroregioną sudarančių narių lygybė bei teisinis pamatas, reglamentuojantis veiklą. Euroregionų skirtingumui įtakos turi įkūrimo tikslų bei uždavinių įvairumas, veiklos prioritetų nevienodumas. Magistro darbe siekiama supažindinti su euroregionų veikla bei vystymuisi nuo 2000 iki 2008 metų. Pagrindinis tyrimo aspektas – makroekonominių rodiklių kaitos dinamika ir išsivystymo skirtumai skirtingose teritorijose esančiuose euroregionuose. Analizuojam bendrosios pridėtinės vertės (BPV), bendrojo vidaus produkto (BVP), materialinių investicijų, tiesioginių užsienio investicijų, ir eksporto rodikliai euroregionuose. Tyrimu siekiama statistiškai pagrįsti objekto (šiuo atveju euroregiono) esminius požymius, jo funkcionavimo veiksnius. Euroregionas pateikiamas kaip vientisa sudėtinga sistema turinti begalę trūkumų, kurių pagrindinis – daugiamatiškumas. Darbe siekiama kuo labiau atsiriboti nuo istorinio ir socialinio konteksto ir rezultatus pateikti tik ekonominiame kontekste. Magistro darbas parašytas naudojantis aprašomaisiais, statistinių ir kitų šaltinių analizės bei grafiniu metodais. / Euregions in Europe there is already the sixth of the twentieth century decade. However, the universal concept of the Euroregion yet. Submissions Euroregion definition clearly states that this structure, a spatial predictability. An important aspect - making up the Euroregion equality and legal basis regulating the activities. Euroregions the difference is affected by the establishment of diversity goals and objectives, operational priorities of inequality. Master work to make the Euroregion activities and development from 2000 to 2008. The main aspect of the study - macroeconomic dynamics of change and development in the different territories of the Euroregion. Analyzed the gross value added (GVA), gross domestic product (GDP), capital investment, foreign direct investment and export performance of the Euroregion. The study seeks to statistically justify the object (in this case, the Euroregion) the essential features of the functioning of factors. Euroregion presented as an integrated complex system with myriad shortcomings, the principal - daugiamatiškumas. The paper aims to maximize distance from the historical and social context, and results only in an economic context. Master thesis is written using descriptive, statistical and other sources for analysis and graphical methods.

Model-based diagnosis compares observations from a system with predictions using a mathematical model to detect and isolate faulty components. Analyzing which faults that can be detected and isolated given the model gives useful information when designing a diagnosis system. This information can be used, for example, to determine which residual generators can be generated or to select a sufficient set of sensors that can be used to detect and isolate the faults. With more information about the system taken into consideration during such an analysis, more accurate estimations can be computed of how good fault detectability and isolability that can be achieved. Model uncertainties and measurement noise are the main reasons for reduced fault detection and isolation performance and can make it difficult to design a diagnosis system that fulfills given performance requirements. By taking information about different uncertainties into consideration early in the development process of a diagnosis system, it is possible to predict how good performance can be achieved by a diagnosis system and avoid bad design choices. This thesis deals with quantitative analysis of fault detectability and isolability performance when taking model uncertainties and measurement noise into consideration. The goal is to analyze fault detectability and isolability performance given a mathematical model of the monitored system before a diagnosis system is developed. A quantitative measure of fault detectability and isolability performance for a given model, called distinguishability, is proposed based on the Kullback-Leibler divergence. The distinguishability measure answers questions like "How difficult is it to isolate a fault fi from another fault fj?. Different properties of the distinguishability measure are analyzed. It is shown for example, that for linear descriptor models with Gaussian noise, distinguishability gives an upper limit for the fault to noise ratio of any linear residual generator. The proposed measure is used for quantitative analysis of a nonlinear mean value model of gas flows in a heavy-duty diesel engine to analyze how fault diagnosability performance varies for different operating points. It is also used to formulate the sensor selection problem, i.e., to find a cheapest set of available sensors that should be used in a system to achieve required fault diagnosability performance. As a case study, quantitative fault diagnosability analysis is used during the design of an engine misfire detection algorithm based on the crankshaft angular velocity measured at the flywheel. Decisions during the development of the misfire detection algorithm are motivated using quantitative analysis of the misfire detectability performance showing, for example, varying detection performance at different operating points and for different cylinders to identify when it is more difficult to detect misfires. This thesis presents a framework for quantitative fault detectability and isolability analysis that is a useful tool during the design of a diagnosis system. The different applications show examples of how quantitate analysis can be applied during a design process either as feedback to an engineer or when formulating different design steps as optimization problems to assure that required performance can be achieved.

The paper investigates the formation of wages in the New Member States in Central and Eastern Europe, in particular the question what the relative role of national and sectoral factors is. While the labor relations in these countries are still in the process of change, some pattern and national differences have emerged. The question is thus to what extent these differences in labor relations are reflected in wage formation. The literature on Western OECD economies is unanimous that coordination of wage bargaining does reduce the wage spread, but disagrees on its effects on unemployment and inflation. The paper analyses wage formation in Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania by means of a panel analysis for manufacturing sectors. The average wage (in the total economy) serves as a national factor and sectoral productivity serves as a sectoral factor. In variations of the basic estimation equation the role of FDI and openness and of capital intensity and skill are also discussed. The results between countries are compared with the recent index of the coordination of collective bargaining by Visser (2005) and with cross country data on union density. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

This paper estimates the effects of outward Foreign Direct Investment (employment in the affiliates abroad) on employment, wages, and the wage share in Austria using panel data for the period of 1996-2005. There is evidence of significant negative effects of FDI on both employment and wages, and consequently on the wage share. The results are not limited to workers in low skilled sectors or blue collar workers. The negative employment effect is primarily due to the rise in the employment in the foreign affiliates in Eastern Euope. The negative wage effects are originating from affiliate employment in both the East and the developed countries in industry, but no effect is found in the total economy. (author´s abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Economic growth is a goal for countries around the world in order to improve living standards, and the effect of foreign direct investments (FDI) has long been studied. There are today many theories and empirical studies regarding FDI. Many questions being studied but finding a straight answer to these have showed to be anything but easy. The results and conclusions go in different directions and much disagreement on whether or not FDI actually contributes to growth. One of the core triggers to the Chinese high economic growth pattern is attributed to FDI, this thesis investigates the same FDI impact on economic growth but with focus on sub-Sahara Africa. With the help of different theories and empirical studies we have selected our variables believing they will have a significant impact on this question. With the data collected from the World Bank database about the countries and seven different variables, a regression is created. The results show that FDI plays a part when it comes to GDP per-capita growth and also that corruption has a significant negative effect on growth rates. FDI in sub-Saharan Africa is hypothesized to mainly consist of brownfield investments as a potential explanation. The data this study uses is between 2005 and 2013, meaning the results are probably not applicable to be interpreted long-term.

My dissertation focuses on foreign entrepreneurs—individuals who establish firms outside of their native countries. Despite the prevalence of foreign entrepreneurs, their strategic choices have received little attention in the research literature. For example, when starting a firm, an entrepreneur must decide whether to manage the business personally or hire a local manager, yet we know little about how this choice affects firm performance. To examine this issue, in the first study I use a novel dataset of foreign entrepreneurial firms in Russia and a visa policy change as an instrument for the owner-manager choice. Contrary to the expectation that foreign entrepreneurs would underperform local managers due to the liability of foreignness, I find that foreign owner-managers can benefit their firms: Exogenous assignment of a local manager in place of a foreign owner-manager reduces profits. Foreign owner-managers benefit their firms by hiring cheap native-country labor as well as through reduced agency costs. The second study examines how private benefits of occupying a managerial position affect an entrepreneur’s choice between owner-management and hiring an agent. I show that foreign entrepreneurs with a strong desire to reside in a host country are more likely to become owner-managers. These results are consistent with the idea that entrepreneurs expecting to gain private benefits from managing their firms are more likely to become owner-managers. Moreover, I demonstrate that entrepreneurs are willing to substitute the non-pecuniary benefits associated with relocation for firm profit. These findings add to a growing literature exploring the role of personal preferences in entrepreneurs’ strategic decisions, such as location choice and ownership structure. The third study examines the impact of media coverage on the location choices of foreign firms. Publicly available media information has largely been ignored by the location literature, perhaps because its impact on location choice is expected to be trivial. This study challenges this assumption: Using a new instrument for media coverage (a major anniversary of a city’s establishment date), I show that extensive foreign media coverage of a city increases the number of foreign entrants. Moreover, this effect is strongest for socially and geographically distant firms and entrepreneurs.

This thesis investigates why and how macroeconomic volatility in source countries interacts with their FDI outflows. The study focuses on FDI flowing out from OECD countries to less developed countries in the ASEAN region. Using a panel data encompassing 52 country-pairs over the period 1996-2011, I find a negative correlation between FDI outflows and macroeconomic volatility in source countries. More specifically the empirical results suggest an adverse relationship between inflation and output volatility (business cycles fluctuations) and FDI flows – the more macroeconomic volatility in developed economies the lesser FDI flows to less developed economies, which is explained by Keynesian theories. These findings derive from a gravity model approach, which enabled me to control for host country determinants. In order to estimate these relationships I adopted a random effects model and a tobit model. The reason behind the use of these two models derives from the different views within this branch of research because of censored FDI statistics. The thesis is inspired by Éric Rougier’s et al. work on how macroeconomic volatility in European countries interacts with FDI flows to the MENA region (2012).

This thesis aims to analyse the implications of European Union (EU) membership on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to Turkey by applying a comparative methodology. The effects of EU accession on FDI inflows to three present member states, Ireland, Spain and Poland, is investigated in order to draw conclusions for Turkish case. The attractiveness of each country in terms of locational determinants of FDI are evaluated. Application of our findings in Ireland, Spain and Poland on Turkish case signifies implications of these determinants on attractiveness of Turkey in terms of FDI inflows. The results of the comparative analysis indicated that &ldquo / distance&rdquo / and &ldquo / market size&rdquo / are going to be essential determinants together with the other four determinants, namely &ldquo / infrastructure and human resources&rdquo / , &ldquo / macroeconomic stability&rdquo / , &ldquo / openness and business environment&rdquo / and &ldquo / incentive schemes&rdquo / , which will have positive consequences on FDI inflows on the condition that appropriate policies are implemented. EU membership is found to have positive implications on FDI inflows by indirectly affecting the other determinants. In general, it is concluded that sustainability of FDI inflows in the long-term is again related to the improvements in the other determinants of FDI rather than EU membership.

台灣身為海島型國家，天然資源有限，卻能在資源貧乏的環境中，展現一枝獨秀的經濟表現，進而位居亞洲四小龍，早期憑藉著普及的國民教育以及勤勞的民族性格，造就相對優越勞動生產力，成為台灣在國際生存上競爭優勢。但隨著80年代後期，台灣無法閉關自守於自由化浪潮之外，仍須面臨國際市場弱肉強食的競爭。貨幣開始承受升值的壓力、國內市場也受到國際開放壓力，台灣比較優勢逐漸喪失。全球化趨勢造成國境圍籬的漸漸模糊，加以近年來社會結構改變，尤其少子化的影響，要避免產業及廠商的萎縮，首重就是勞動生產力的提升，除了維持國際間競爭優勢，同時也在構築未來國家競爭力。本研究將採用經濟部2007年針對製造業對外投資的實況調查問卷資料，回顧整理、分析舊有文獻及理論，並將之歸納為勞動素質提升、資本深化影響及總要素生產力等三層面，以OLS多元迴歸進行實證分析，探討影響對外投資製造業勞動生產力的決定因素，以期對企業提升勞動生產力有所貢獻。