This study focuses on Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and their importance in the economic development of Third World Countries. Recogni sing that. MNCs can contribute to economic growth and development, most Third World Countries are constantly working to attract them. hence their demand has become highly competiti ve. However, MNCs do not go without some negative effects. such as conflicts between host and investor countries. and the creation of damaging competition to local firms. These negative effects could be minimised if policies and strategies for the promotion and attraction of MNCs are part of. and integrated into. general economic development and economic reform policies and not seen in isolation. Although Third World Countries have implemented strategies to attract more MNCs. a refinement of some of these policies is needed if a country is to be successful in this regard. / Thesis (M.A (International Relations) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2014

Master of Arts / Department of Economics / Yang M. Chang / China’s absorbing foreign direct investment (FDI) has contributed importantly to its economy growth. Based on the findings of some previous studies in the literature, this report presents a general review of FDI in China, which includes characteristic, history and regional distribution. In the report, I discuss various economic determinants of FDI (such as market size, labor cost, infrastructure, and government policies) and investigate the impact of FDI on China's economic growth. Furthermore, I discuss challenges, new trends and the future opportunities facing China.

Since the late 1970s, the Chinese economic system has experienced a series of economic reforms, which include attracting foreign direct investment and the liberalisation of Chinese international trade. Due to the successful reform, China has experienced a 30 year economic growth. Previous empirical studies found the positive effect of FDI in the Chinese economic development. This study plans to investigate the factors which attract the investment to China and the impact of the inward FDI on international trade and Chinese economic development under the geographic location condition. OLI model has emphasis the location effect in motivated FDI flows. The first research question is the determinant of FDI in China with concerning the geographic effect. Different with the previous empirical paper on the FDI determinants in China, the using the geographic effect as an dummy variable in the specification, this study investigate the effect of the other determinant under different geographic background. The geographic effect has been explore in two levels: national level and regional level. On national level, there are two countries have been selected as research samples: the investment from the U.S. and the investment from Japan. These two countries have similar economic size and FDI stock in China but have different geographic relationship with China. Through the ARDL research approach, this study finds that the key drivers of inward investment are relative wages, relative capital cost, market size and net exports, although the source of these FDI flows is also found to be important especially those from the USA and Japan. The determinants of FDI from the US and Japan have different effect. International trade has negative effect of export from US to China on the US FDI stock in China, while it has positive coefficient of the exports from Japan to China on the Japanese FDI. The large market size would drive the FDI from US but reduce the FDI from Japan. The geographic effect influences the motivation of FDI (Helpman 1984, Cushman 1988). This further lead the determinants has different effect. The study on regional FDI divided the Chinese provinces in two subgroups: the eastern coastal area and the western hinterland. The eastern area has more than 80% of FDI in China. The eastern coastal has rich resource in the transportation, openness, physical and human capital. The west hinterland area has cheaper labours. However, the result shows that the competition in the sub-regions are determined by it scare resources. Cheaper wage is the key factor to attractive the investment to the east regions. While the technology, human capital and economy openness is the key factors to determine the FDI stock in the west hinterland. The second research question is the impact of FDI on international trade. Chapter 6 investigates the plausibility of FDI driving trade. The granger causality test has been applied to test the endogenity between international trade and FDI stock in China, the results does not support the causality. The further regression results show that this model is not substantiated by the data, so the maintained hypothesis that FDI is the dependent variables seems to be appropriate for China. The third contribution is to examine the effects of FDI on economic growth. In this panel data analysis the impact of FDI on the regions of the country is examined. Furthermore, the impact on the sub-regions groups has also been explored. The results show that economy of the east coastal area in China is motivated by the inward FDI stock. However, due to the limitation of the catch-up capability, FDI has negative effect on the development of the hinterland in China. The hinterland economy is driven by the international trade, although the transportation resource in the hinterland is not as rich as ones in the eastern coast.

One of the most visible indicators of the increasing global integration of the world economy over the past decade or so has been the phenomenal growth of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows and expansion of cross-border activities of multinational enterprises. FDI inflows are considered as channels of entrepreneurship, technology, management skills, and resources that are scarce in developing countries and Southern Africa in particular. Recent developments in growth theory highlight the importance of improvements in technology, efficiency and productivity in simulating growth. In this regard, FDI’s contribution to growth comes through its role as a conduit for transferring its advanced technology from the industrialized to the developing economies and as such FDI inflows could help in the industrialization of the host countries. For instance, Findlay (1978) postulates that FDIs increases the rate of technical progress in the host country through a “contagion” effect from the more advanced technology and management practices used by foreign firms. Since FDI is said to be the most stable source of private capital for developing and transition economies, attracting FDI is at the top of the agenda of such economies around the world as they aim to reduce poverty that is deep and widespread. The paper will look at FDI and its contributions; discuss the relationship between FDI and economic growth; explore the determinants of FDI and economic growth; consider the implications of FDI to economic growth and poverty alleviation; examine Taiwan’s experience when its development was closer to current levels in Africa and Southern Africa in particular; and explore how the Southern African region can attain economic growth through FDI and alleviate its deep and widespread poverty. In trying to assess the extent to which FDI contributes to construction of production facilities, infusion of innovative technologies, management strategies, workforce practices, new employment, and skill transfer, the paper seeks to shed light on appropriate policies to pursue in order to encourage high volumes of FDI and their likely implications for economic growth and poverty alleviation. While economic growth is not synonymous with economic development, it is at least necessary. Provided that mechanisms exist to facilitate some trickle-down of the benefits of economic growth to the impoverished, economic growth can aid in poverty reduction. The most important mechanism by which trickle-down occurs is via employment-creating economic growth. In this way, it is possible that, if FDI serves as a catalyst for economic growth, it will stimulate development and contribute to alleviating poverty (Lipsey, R., 2000). David Dollar (2001) states that Globalization has been a force for growth and poverty reduction in a diverse group of countries and defines globalization as the growing integration of economies and societies around the world as a result of flows of goods and services, capital, people, and ideas. He claims that integration accelerates development and reduces gaps between the developed and developing countries by raising productivity in the developing world. In this way globalization can be a powerful force for poverty reduction. FDI is one element that links the Southern part of Africa to the global economy and as a World Bank report (2001) shows that rapid economic growth and poverty reduction are positive aspects of globalization, the volume of FDI attracted will have an influence on whether the Southern Africa’s poor can benefit from the globalization of markets.

<p> </p><p>The purpose of this paper is to examine whether foreign direct investment, FDI, has any impact on economic growth in Mexico. In order to find a possible connection I use a multiple regression analysis with GDP per capita as dependent variable. Furthermore, I critically examine previous studies of FDI and its effect on GDP per capita in Mexico as well as other studies with several developed and developing countries. The difference between this paper and previous studies is that the data is more up-to-date here. My results, like most of the previous studies, do not indicate on any statistical significance that FDI has a positive effect on economic growth. FDI do however seem to produce positive spillover effects on the domestic economy, mainly through knowledge and technological spillovers.</p><p> </p><p> </p>

Le changement rapide du contexte économique mondiale caractérisé par la globalisation entraîne une évolution des exigences et objectifs des investisseurs internationaux. Les gouvernements, surtout ceux des pays en développement, doivent en tenir compte et adapter leurs facteurs d'attractivité aux nouvelles attentes des entrepreneurs mondiaux. Dans ce but La Libye a commencé depuis les années 2000 à pratiquer des politiques d'ouverture et de communication afin d'attirer les investissements étrangers Ces investissements devaient contribuer au développement de son économie et à la résolution des problèmes liés à la dépendance de l'économie au secteur pétrolier. Pour cela l'Etat libyen a fait un appel à Michael PORTER et aux grandes institutions mondiales pour définir une stratégie globale. Dans cette perspective, la présente recherche se donne deux objectifs : d'une part, mettre en lumière l'environnement de l'investissement direct étranger en Libye et, d'autre part, définir une stratégie spécifique pour stimuler les investissements étrangers selon les attentes, les besoins et les exigences des firmes multinationales.Le choix d'une démarche qualitative par entretien et questionnaire auprès d'entreprises étrangères implantées en Libye permet d'avoir une évaluation exhaustive de l'attractivité du territoire libyen et d'envisager la stratégie à mettre en œuvre par l'Etat libyen pour attirer les IDE à forte valeur.L'analyse montre l'existence de deux profils bien distincts quant à l'attractivité des IDE : les investisseurs pessimistes et les investisseurs optimistes. Dans ce sens, le pays doit mener une stratégie spécifique par profil pour bien stimuler les investisseurs étrangers. L'amélioration du potentiel d'attractivité des IDE en Libye, notamment dans les secteurs hors pétrole, nécessite la mise en place de conditions d'accueil spécifiques. Il s'agit entre autres du développement des infrastructures, du renforcement de la stabilité politique après la guerre et de l'amélioration de la gestion des recettes pétrolières afin que le secteur pétrole impulse le développement des autres secteurs. / The rapidly changing global economic context characterized by globalization leads to changing requirements and goals of international investors. Governments, especially in developing countries, must take into account and adapt their attractiveness factors the new expectations of entrepreneurs worldwide. To this end Libya began in the 2000s to pursue policies of openness and communication in order to attract foreign investments These investments should contribute to the development of its economy and solving problems related to the dependence of the economy to the oil sector. For this, the Libyan government has appealed to Michael Porter and large global institutions to develop a comprehensive strategy. In this perspective, this research has two objectives: first, to highlight the environment of foreign direct investment in Libya and, secondly, to define a specific strategy to encourage foreign investment, according to the expectations the needs and requirements of multinational firms.The choice of a qualitative approach by interview and questionnaire with foreign companies operating in Libya provides a comprehensive assessment of the attractiveness of the Libyan territory and consider the strategy to be implemented by the Libyan government to attract FDI in high- value.The analysis shows the existence of two distinct profiles on the attractiveness of FDI: investors pessimistic and optimistic investors. In this sense, the country must pursue a strategy-specific profile for many stimulating foreign investors. Improving the potential attractiveness of FDI in Libya, especially in non-oil sectors, requires the implementation of specific reception conditions. These include infrastructure development, strengthening of political stability after the war and improving the management of oil revenues to the oil sector promote development of other sectors.

The aim of this research is to understand how corruption affects the attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Studies of corruption and its relationship with FDI have yielded mixed results; some have found that corruption deters FDI others have found no relation between the two factors, while others have found a positive one. In order to further the knowledge of how corruption affects FDI this study argues that it is not only the level of corruption what might affect FDI but also the distance between host and home countries. This study presents two sections, the first one concentrates on a macroeconomic level analysis of corruption and how it affects FDI to Latin America. The second section analyses how corruption affects the decision-making process of allocating FDI to a highly corrupt host country at the firm-level. After controlling for institutional and transaction cost variables, results show that corruption distance has an asymmetrical impact. Host countries enjoying “positive” corruption distance compared with home countries as sources of FDI experience no significant increases or reductions in levels of inward FDI. However, “negative” corruption distance suffered by host countries is associated with significantly lower levels of inward FDI. Conversely, firms from home countries with high corruption are undeterred by high corruption in host countries. This study also analysed how corruption affected foreign investors at the firm level. To do so, this study researched the decision making process of allocating FDI into a highly corrupt host country. The results of the analysis show that corruption amongst bureaucrats, judges, and members of the government elite do not seem to have an impact on the decision making process of allocating FDI in the country because foreign investors are aware of the problem. However, firms from more corrupt countries seem to have an advantage when operating in a highly corrupt foreign location because they may possess knowledge of how to cope with the arbitrariness dimension of corruption. High corruption levels in the host country seem to have an effect on the entry mode utilised by firms from countries with lower levels of corruption. Based on the results presented on this study, MNEs from less corrupt countries might opt to enter a highly corrupt host country via wholly owned subsidiaries (WOS) rather than joint ventures (JVs). This might be explained by the fact that these investors prefer to have more control over their firms’ operations in a highly corrupt country. Also, these managers need to protect their image and not to be associated with local partners that are perceived as corrupt. Finally, even though this study found evidence that all firms operating in Guatemala might participate in corrupt deals, those headquartered in highly corrupt countries are more willing to do so. This claim is based on the fact that firms from less corrupt countries might face stronger pressures from their headquarters to not engage in corrupt deals, whereas firms from more corrupt countries might not encounter such pressures.

The liberalization of FDI is deepening, so have the incentive schemes put in place by a number of countries. Investment promotion agencies in these countries are seen to be actively promoting their countries as the best locations for foreign direct investment (FDI). With FDI emerging as a fovourite source of capital for most countries, profound questions about the true value of FDI to host countries are addressed in this study. While incentive packages may be justified on the basis of incomplete internalization of FDI benefits by foreign firms, it still remains critical to establish whether these benefits (spillovers) are substantive. As an attempt to answer these questions, this dissertation uses both firm level and country level data to investigate the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on productivity and economic growth. The first part of the study uses cross sectional firm level data to investigate whether foreign firms are more productive than domestic firms. We further examine whether there are any significant productivity spillovers from foreign to domestic firms or not. SIn the second part, focus is on country level analysis which uses both time series and panel data techniques. In the time series analysis we use the recent Toda-Yamamoto causality testing framework to determine the direction of causality between FDI and growth for three groups of countries: developing, emerging and developed countries. This is followed by fixed effects and dynamic panel data analyses for the 37 countries (9 developing, 12 emerging and 16 developed) where we test for absorptive capacity effects. Our findings show that results are determined to a great extent by the method of analysis. Interesting findings emerge from this study. The firm level data revealed the importance of multinational corporations in improving domestic firm productivity. With this finding, we anticipate these results to filter through the macro system and show up in the time series and panel data analyses. In the case of developing economies, productivity differences between domestic and foreign firms are confirmed only where the definition of FDI is below the full ownership level. Positive but statistically insignificant spillovers are found in the developing country sample. From the emerging economy sample, we iii find neither significant productivity differences nor related spillovers from foreign to domestic firms. With regards to developed economies, as in the case of emerging economies, there are no statistically significant productivity differences between domestic and foreign firms. Interestingly, for this sample, positive and highly significant spillovers from foreign to domestic firms are documented. The Toda Yamamoto Granger causality framework shows unidirectional causality from FDI to GDP in Colombia, Egypt and Zambia. These results suggest that in these three countries, we have a case of growth enhancing FDI. There is also evidence of causality which runs from GDP to FDI in China, Indonesia, France, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom. This is a case where higher levels of economic activity attract foreign direct investment. We also find evidence of bi-directional causality for Argentina, Kenya and Thailand. No clear cut relationship between FDI and growth is established in the rest of the countries: Brazil, Chile, Ghana, India, Jordan, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, South Africa and all but four of the developed economies. The dynamic panel data analysis for the developing economy sample reveals positive effects between FDI and economic growth. A key finding from this is the negative impact of financial development, an absorptive capacity measure. This unexpected result raises the possibility of international capital flows becoming more harmful to developing economies when extensive development of the domestic financial sector makes it difficult to regulate financial transactions of relatively esoteric financial contracts. This evidence there should be a nuanced embrace of financial globalization by developing economies. In the emerging economy analysis, the roles of openness of the economy and financial development as absorptive capacity indicators are elevated. Overall, the dynamic analysis shows a largely negative and statistically insignificant effect of FDI on economic growth. For developed economies, we find that negative effects of FDI on economic growth are encountered at both the minimum and mean levels of openness. This suggests that for developed economies, a level of openness above the mean value would be ideal for economic growth to be realized through FDI. iv Corroborating our findings with the work of other scholars, we conclude that our results are complementary. It appears that the contradictions inherent in the FDI-Growth literature could be partly due to methodological differences.

Countries with high levels of growth-fostering business deregulation for domestic small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) appear to attract more FDI inflows than countries with low levels of business deregulation. This may be because SMEs in such deregulated countries attract ample cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As), which are a major conduit of FDI inflows. This study therefore investigates the relationship between FDI inflow and business deregulation. The study employs a triangulation of quantitative research methodologies and a panel data of 154 countries to analyze the relationship between FDI and deregulation. Results from the study generally show that there are statistically significant and inversely proportional relationships between inbound FDI and the deregulation of: (i) starting a business, (ii) paying taxes, and (iii) export trading, by a country‘s domestic SMEs. The study also documents positive correlations between cross-border M&As and inbound FDI. Thus, countries are likely to attract more FDI inflows, especially through cross-border M&As, as they deregulate the: starting of businesses, payment of taxes and exportation of products for their domestic SMEs. Therefore, on policy front, it is recommended that in order to enhance FDI inflows, countries ought to deregulate these areas of infringement to efficient running of SMEs; this finding provides a complementary and/or substitute policy to the popular outward-looking incentive programs for attracting FDIs.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse if the euro has had any significant effect on the inflow of foreign direct investments. Our purpose is answered by developing an econometric model with inflow of foreign direct investments as the dependent variable. The model is estimated with the ordinary least squares method and panel data from ten different countries, five which have adopted the euro as their currency and five which have not. The data collected concerns the timeframe from 1994 to 2007. The theoretical background is retrieved mainly from journal articles that have conducted similar research of how a common currency has affected foreign direct investments. We use these studies as a base for developing our regression model and also as a foundation for our analysis. The results from this thesis show that the euro has had a large significant effect on foreign direct investments which we see by analysing the interaction variable in our regression. Furthermore, the results show that trade openness and GDP have the largest significant effect on FDI, meanwhile unit labour cost and exchange rate volatility had no significant effect at all. We conclude that the euro has a positive significant effect on inward foreign direct investment. Although the model suggests that having adopted the euro in 1999 would yield a 58.4 per cent increase in inward FDI compared to countries that kept their own currency, we are uncertain of the effect’s actual magnitude due to concern that we read some effects from the single market in the variable we use to estimate the euro’s effect.