My dissertation addresses the debate on the impact of foreign direct investment on physical integrity rights. I evaluate competing theories from the neoliberal and historical structuralist schools of thought. According to the former, FDI generally leads to better human rights practices. The latter, in contrast, is characterized as postulating a direct link between FDI and repression. By and large, the literature seems to support the neoliberal view (and, by extension, disconfirm the historical structuralist view). Yet in spite of the scholarly consensus, I argue that it is premature to conclude the debate. Scholars appear to have misunderstood the causal mechanism that historical structuralists believe link FDI to repression of physical integrity rights. They ignore a crucial variable that, as historical structuralists imply, mediates the effects of FDI on the level of repression: domestic unrest. We should only expect repression to increase when high levels of FDI coincide with domestic unrest. In order to safeguard their investments, MNCs lend support to friendly host governments (either directly or through their home government), which paves the way for further repression. In this paper, I will attempt to redress this problem by offering a more refined version of the historical structuralist model, and by assessing – both quantitatively and qualitatively - its effects on human rights. Probit regression models will be used to test both the neoliberal and historical structuralist propositions on a sample of low- and lower-middle-income countries from the years 1981-2004. I then conduct two case studies on Algeria and Lesotho. To briefly summarize this study’s main findings, the quantitative data largely disconfirms the neoliberal theory that FDI reduces the repression of physical integrity rights over time. In contrast, there is stronger evidence for the structuralist theory that countries with large flows of FDI are more repressive in times of domestic unrest. Case study analysis largely supports these statistical findings and, in the case of Algeria, suggests ways to modify structuralism. Specifically, the Algerian case illustrates how repression is more likely in industries that are more labor-intensive and are concentrated in densely-populated regions.

There is a reasonable amount of literature and discussions among scholars on the effect of host country corporate taxation on the inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI). This study is an attempt to analyse this effect in 25 high income OECD countries over the period of 1996 until 2009. The main objective of the paper is to prove statistically whether there is significant and negative relationship between the inflows of FDI and corporate taxation in the selected sample of OECD countries during the specified time span. This relationship is investigated with OLS regression analysis with pooled panel data to find to what extent the selected explanatory variable effective tax rate (ETR) along with trade openness, long term interest rate, share of internet users and labour cost have an impact on the dependent variable - FDI relative to GDP. Finally, it is proved that the elasticity between corporate taxation and FDI is positive at a level below the average effective tax rate and negative above the average level of effective tax rate. In addition, all other important variables included in the regression model are found to be significant determinants of FDI. The study is based on relevant literature and the statistical analysis is made in regard to the models described in scientific articles in the paper.

In this thesis I have examined the role of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in fuelling hostcountries economic developments. By looking closer into Mexico and the case of automobile industry which has been historically the subject of control of foreign affiliates I observed coinciding patterns. Through North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) the channels between trade and investments have become more obvious and even transparent. Speaking about Mexico’s economic developments, albeit the total volumes of trade have increased, the country’s terms-of- trade were deteriorating following the post-NAFTA years. While conducting the research I have made use of neo-liberal economic discourses, theories of international trade and investment in order to explain the underlying motives for free-trade. These motives offer solid arguments to adopt the strategy of export orientation. While investigating the investments form multinationals and comparable Mexican trade performance, I have fund that exports and FDI flows have seemingly unrelated. The country has been a significant receiver of foreign imports at the time of post-NAFTA developments and huge FDI inflows. The result was that capacity of domestic production was limited and the trade imbalance ensured. Analysis explores closer relation between FDI and the country’s import levels which cause deterioration in the terms of trade and economic growth. The explanation lies in the nature of FDI per se. The type of investment in Mexico is essentially market-seeking, since it adjusts to the international competitive pressures, and search access to comparatively advantageous foreign markets, explained by the theory of capital movements. This paper also questions and raises concern with regard to the consequences of these pressures that leads to race-to-the-bottom policies.

Background: In today’s business climate, a growing number of corporations have chosen to explore markets outside their national boundaries. There has been a shift in marketing strategies from a domestic perspective to a global one. Of all the methods available for firms to internationalize, Foreign Direct Investment possesses several advantages; it stimulates employment; raises wages, and replaces declining market sectors. It acts as a stimulant for infrastructure development and technology transfer. For Sweden Saudi Arabia is the most important export market in the Middle East. As Saudi Arabia is a country that presents both huge business opportunities and challenges for Swedish firms, it is important to study how some firms have succeeded in entering this market and what attracted them there in the first place. Purpose: The author’s intent is to identify the advantages and disadvantages for Swedish firms of carrying out FDI in Saudi Arabia. Method: this thesis is based on a case study of two Swedish firms with operations in Saudi Arabia. The author has chosen to use a qualitative research method. Empirical data was gathered by e-mails and phone interviews. Conclusions:  To author answers the research questions; Why did Swedish firms decide to establish themselves in Saudi Arabia? & How did they manage to establish themselves through FDI in that region?  Swedish firms get into the Saudi market because of advantages related the economy, the considerable market size and revenue, improved business climate, business opportunities, their global marketing strategy and their ownership specific advantages. As for how they succeeded to establish their FDI, it was through an incremental approach aided by a good knowledge of the market, the ability of the firm, proactive steps to reduce the impact of cultural differences and the country of origin effect. Suggestions for future research: Future research could focus on doing broader studies involving a larger sample, focusing on one or a few FDI determinants to investigate how they affect the investment decision as well as the managerial implications of cultural distance.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between Foreign Direct Investments and the standard of living in terms of the Human Development Index in the region of Sub-Saharan Africa. The theory of economic growth is based on Solow. For the region of Sub-Saharan Africa, Foreign Direct Investments ought to be of great importance to finance the investments needed to achieve economic growth according to Solow. The reason for this is that the region of Sub-Saharan Africa lacks the ability to finance these investments with its own savings. The focus of the report is the Foreign Direct Investments; although the variable shows no significant correlation to the Human Development Index, there is a significant positive correlation between Foreign Direct Investments and health expenditure as a percentage of total government expenditure, one of the driving forces behind an improved Human Development Index.

The last two centuries have been distinguished by technological innovation, liberalization and globalization of the world economy. Out of this environment the multinational enterprises (MNEs) have arisen -seeking the best profit opportunities around the world without consideration to poverty and equality in the host countries. This has raised the interest of the present study where the objective is to assess the impact MNEs have on the host country in terms of transferring know-how. By testing two hypotheses, the study attempts to analyze whether MNEs entail a transfer of skills and also identifies the extent to which MNEs are a potential source of skill-upgrading. The research is realized by a qualitative minor field study in Dakar where 24 semi-structured interviews are carried out at three MNEs and three Senegalese enterprises. The interviews are jointly analyzed with a theoretical framework in order to determinate if there are significant differences between the two types of enterprises concerning the wage-setting, working conditions as well as transfer of know-how. The result shows that MNEs have more training opportunities then local enterprises, the working conditions do not differ significantly. Further there is no evidence found for MNEs paying higher wages then local enterprises judged by the general attitude of the interviewees. It is therefore assumed to be some labor mobility, implying that the training contributed by MNEs might work a source of skill-upgrade for the workforce in Dakar.

After joining WTO (World Trade Organization) in 2001, the China government started to adjust its laws, regulations and the limitation of foreign direct invest. As the result, it helps the economic to grow and the foreign direct invest ratio to increase, and finally derive the demand of air cargo delivery. This research focuses on the foreign direct invest on air cargo in China, such as investigate the development of air cargo industry after the globalization in China, discuss the development of transnational air cargo industry in China, and find out how did the foreign air cargo companies enter China and figure out how did they invest. According to the research result, the international trade industry is liberlization than before, especially the distribution service industry, after China joined WTO. In addition, when the foreign direct invest is increasing, the demand of air cargo delivery is also increasing. However, the local air cargo companies could not meet the demand; therefore, the transnational air cargo companies invest the air cargo industry in China. In fact, the transnational air cargo companies and local industry had cooperated with each other by joint venture and win the market share. On the other hand, in order to meet the globalization, the local air cargo companies should cooperate with foreign companies in some ways, such as joint venture or strategic alliance, and than create mutual benefit.

Institutional environments and the following institutional factors are viewed as the important characteristics in examining firm¡¦s strategic choices as well as the firm¡¦s endogenous resources and the industrial factors. In addressing the multinational company¡¦s location choices issues, institutional factor and the MNC¡¦s reactive strategies are seldom examined since the data limitation. This research tries to discuss the possible institutional sources impact on multinational company¡¦s location choices in China from the institutional theory viewpoint. There are giant institutional transitions in China since the open-market policies in the early 1990s. The announcement of the 12th ¡§five year plan¡¨ in China has estimated to generate great impact on multinational company¡¦s location choices. Thus, this research tries to addressing the multinational company¡¦s location choice issues in China context. Utilizing the in-depth interviewing method from Taiwanese multinational companies, this research supports the arguments from the institutional theory in location choice issues. In that, the higher coercive forces, or the formal forces instead, in a host country, the more likely that the multinational company will choose the acquiesce strategy to move. Moreover, the multinational company¡¦s acquiesce strategy in reaction will also generate economic side-effect in decision-making process. Additionally, in deciding the new location choice, the formal as well as the informal institutional forces will generate impact in multinational company¡¦s location choice, as argued from revised eclectic paradigm. The results provide a beginning in addressing location choice issues in China from the institutional viewpoint.

The significant restructuring of international capital flows to developing countries – in particular to Latin American countries – observed in the last quarter century has generated significant research in the area to examine its potential impact on development efforts. The resurgence of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the increasing significance of remittances, both as shares of gross domestic product (GDP), have made these types of capital flows the most analyzed. Despite the large fraction of empirical studies that find a positive and significant relationship between FDI and economic growth, an important fact that has been so far overlooked in the literature is its impact on standards of living in host countries. This dissertation first establishes the strong complementary connection between FDI and economic growth in Latin America, measured by increases in GDP per capita growth rates, to then examine additional channels through which it could affect the welfare of the region. I first show that FDI has a positive effect on central government tax revenues, which is mainly channeled through its effect on taxes on goods and services. I then show that FDI has a positive and significant effect on the employment rates in these host countries, with female employment rate getting the largest impact – relative to males. Remittances are another capital flow that plays a large and important role in certain economies, exceeding 10% of GDP in some countries. The impact of remittances on the main macroeconomic measures of a small open economy is analyzed in the last section using a stochastic limited participation model with cash in advance constraints and costly adjustment of cash holdings. After verifying that the model responds adequately to standard shocks, a remittances shock is introduced to examine the dynamic response of the representative economy. The results show that a positive remittances shock forces the exchange rate to depreciate and lowers both output and consumption in the period of the shock. The positive shock lowers utility during the shock but raises it from the following period onwards, improving discounted utility after 10 years when remittances are 10% of GDP and there are no adjustment costs.

This paper analyzes the opportunities and challenges Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) confronted during the economic transition from planned economy to market economy in China. In a string of SOEs reform events, Chinese government is in strong hopes of improving Chinese economic system and SOEs management efficiency by attracting foreign capital inflow. Merger and acquisition are the present global phenomenon. With current successful foreign direct investment (FDI) trends and strategies in China, more and more FDI entered the Chinese market by merging Chinese enterprises and achieved corporate goals. However, it is apparent that the motives of FDI differ from those of Chinese enterprise being merged, therefore the following potential consequences arise with China¡¦s open policy for FDI: what impacts do FDI bring to China? Does FDI in fact reform SOEs? Are SOEs¡¦ efficiency improved, in terms of financial and management, after merged by FDI? Is FDI¡¦s entry to Chinese market without difficulties? The paper intends to answer the above questions.