This paper employs an augmented gravity model for a sample of 96 host countries to examine the impact of host country rule of law on direct investment from the United States. This paper further investigates the gap between property rights and freedom from corruption, the two primary components of a country’s rule of law. Property rights and freedom from corruption are both shown to have a significant positive effect on U.S. outward foreign direct investment. This thesis argues that freedom from corruption is a more powerful measure than property rights for determining the location of U.S. direct investment. This suggests that for host countries, reducing the level of corruption may be more effective at stimulating direct capital investment from U.S. investors than expanding property rights.

The focus of this research is on identifying the determinants of local-level climate change adaptive capacity in Caribbean small island communities. A single case study approach was employed to assess retrospectively both internal and external factors that contributed to the adaptive capacity of Paget Farm, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Caribbean region’s first solar-powered desalination plant was implemented in the community specifically as a climate change adaptation strategy and thus provides an ideal case for retrospective analysis. A series of semi-structured interviews with local residents and key stakeholders revealed a number of interacting social and institutional factors that contribute to community-based adaptive capacity. Further analysis of institutional factors was undertaken using Social Network Analysis, which enabled visualization and quantification of vertical and horizontal institutional integration of the networks formed during different phases of project implementation. The research extends scholarly understanding of the determinants that influence local-level climate change adaptive capacity and provides practical evidence that can assist small island communities to respond to a changing climate.

The purpose of this research is to provide an understanding of the relationship that may exist between the institutional determinants and the inward flow of FDI in France. Indeed, the French government and various decisions-makers have attributed the unique growth of the inward flow of FDI to the institutional quality of the country. Moreover, to support this assumption, scholars and experts describe France as an institutionally powerful country. Therefore, in order to test this assumption, we have designed an explanatory analysis of the institutional determinants’ indexes from the WGIs over the period from 2005 to 2018 to test their likely relationship with the FDI inflows in France using descriptive, correlation and regression analyses. This study is based on the rich and furnished literature addressing the role of institutional characteristics in attracting FDI. Although our research has been impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic in terms of data collection and analyses, the corroborating evidences from the empirical findings do not validate the raised hypotheses and bring out many practical implications beneficial for national and local policymakers as well as companies’ managers in the worldwide FDI location competition.

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Social Sciences Institute of Economic Studies Master's thesis Trade and Politics: Political Determinants of International Trade Flows Author: Bc. Jan Sosnovec Supervisor: Ing. Vilém Semerák, M.A., Ph.D. January 3, 2018 Abstract This thesis takes a comprehensive look at the relationship between international trade and politics. The first part of this thesis is theoretical. Besides providing a useful overview of this highly complex subject, it makes a contribution to the contemporary theory by proposing two simple models. The first of these models explains how because of complementarity of institutions, countries end up stuck with inefficient institutions and consequently high trade costs; countries can break out of this inefficient equilibrium only by coordinating their actions. The second proposed model shows how governments set trade barriers in order to pursue their political aims, while at the same time staying popular in order to remain in power. This model is consistent with a wide variety of regime types and ideologies, and takes into account voter heterogeneity. The second part of this thesis is empirical. It uses the gravity model of trade, with multilateral resistance terms represented either by fixed effects or by the Baier-Bergstrand linear approximation of...

Très peu d'études empiriques ont analysé les déterminants qui influencent les modes d'organisation de la fonction contrôle de gestion dans les grandes entreprises industrielles marocaines. La présente recherche, qui prend pour cadre le Maroc, explore les déterminants qui influencent les différentes configurations de la fonction contrôle de gestion dans les grandes entreprises industrielles marocaines. Il convient de ce fait de s'interroger sur la nature des facteurs : s'agit-il de pressions institutionnelles ? Pour ce faire, nous avons développé quatre chapitres complémentaires articulés en deux parties, afin de répondre à la problématique suivante : « Quelle est l'influence des facteurs institutionnels sur les configurations de la fonction contrôle de gestion au sein des grandes entreprises industrielles marocaines ? ». Dans une première partie et conformément à une structure de recherche classique, nous avons fait l'exposition d'une revue de la littérature, suivie d'une étude exploratoire du terrain exploitant qualitativement des entretiens réalisés auprès des professionnels marocains à travers cinq études de cas, pour aboutir enfin à un modèle conceptuel. Ce modèle conceptuel présente les modes d'organisation de la fonction contrôle de gestion et les déterminants institutionnels susceptibles d'influencer les différentes configurations de cette fonction. Notre recherche se fonde essentiellement sur l'approche néo-institutionnelle. Dans la deuxième partie, nous avons mené une étude empirique quantitative-hypothético-déductive, à base de 113 grandes entreprises industrielles marocaines. Dans cette partie, nous avons présenté d'abord les caractéristiques des 4 types de la FCG. Ensuite, nous avons approfondi notre analyse quantitative pour mesurer le degré d'influence de chaque déterminant sur la FCG. Enfin, la recherche s'achève en dégageant les principales implications de notre modélisation sur l'introduction la typologie de Lambert et Sponem de la fonction contrôle de gestion au Maroc. / Very few empirical studies have analyzed the determinants that influence patterns of organization of management control function in Moroccan large industrial firms. This research, which takes Morocco as a context, explores the determinants that influence the different configurations of management control function in Moroccan large industrial firms .It should thereby question the nature of these determinants : are there institutional pressures? To do this, we have developed four additional chapters articulated in two parts, in order to answer the following question: “What is the influence of institutional factors on patterns of management control function within large Moroccan industrial firms?” In the first part and in accordance with a traditional research structure, we have presented our literature review, followed by an exploratory field research that analyses qualitatively interviews conducted with Moroccan professionals through five case studies to finally arrive to a conceptual model. This conceptual model shows the modes of organization of management control function and the institutional determinants that may influence the different configurations of this function. Our research is mainly based on the neo-institutional approach. In the second part, we conducted a quantitative-hypothetical-deductive empirical study, based on 113 large Moroccan industrial firms. In this section, we firstly presented the characteristics of the 4 Management Control Function types. Then we have deepened our quantitative analysis to measure the degree of influence of each determinant on the MCF. Finally, we concluded our research by identifying the main implications of our model to the introduction of Sponem Lambert typology on the management control function in Morocco.