The determinants of foreign direct investment into European transition economies

Using a panel dataset of bilateral flows of foreign direct investment (FDI), we study the determinants of FDI from Western countries, mainly in the European Union (EU), to Central and Eastern European ones. We find the most important influences to be unit labor costs, gravity factors, market size, and proximity. Interestingly, host country risk proves not to be a significant determinant. Our empirical work also indicates that announcements about EU Accession proposals have an impact on FDI for the future member countries. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (4) (2004) 775–787.     

Foreign direct investment via M&A and domestic entrepreneurship: blessing or curse?

There are conflicting predictions in the literature about the relationship between FDI and entrepreneurship. This paper explores how foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, measured by lagged cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), affect entrepreneurial entry in the host economy. We have constructed a micro-panel of more than two thousand individuals in each of seventy countries, 2000–2009, linked to FDI by matching sectors. We find the relationship between FDI inflows and domestic entrepreneurship to be negative across all economies. This negative effect is much more pronounced in developed than developing economies and is also identified within industries, notably in manufacturing. Policies to encourage FDI via M&A need to consider how to counteract the prevailing adverse effect on domestic entrepreneurship.     

Regulatory Barriers and Entry into a New Competitive Industry

We model the effects of license fees and bureaucratic delay on firm entry into a new competitive industry, whose profitability is initially unknown. A license fee alone reduces the number of first movers and the steady‐state number of firms. The combination of license fee and delay may cause some entrepreneurs to purchase licenses speculatively, only using them to enter production later if profitability is revealed to be sufficiently favourable. Alternatively, some entrepreneurs may wait, possibly buying a license only after profitability is revealed; but it is never found that some entrepreneurs adopt one of these strategies and some the other.     

Comparing a Traditional IRA and a Roth IRA: Theory Versus Practice

Financial planners often advise their clients to first take advantage of employer‐sponsored 401(k) plans, especially those with matching employer contributions. They often recommend next that clients consider a traditional or Roth IRA, depending on their current eligibility and tax bracket. Generally, the traditional IRA tends to be preferable to the Roth IRA if one expects to be in a lower tax bracket during the retirement versus the contribution years. This preference could be impacted by the theoretical or the practical assumptions one could make as to the tax bracket effect, minimum distribution requirements, and the impact of withdrawals on the amount of Social Security benefits taxed. This research compares the traditional and the Roth IRA, examining both the theoretical and practical assumptions of client behavior. The results indicate that the best choice between the types of IRAs depends on whether the investor's actual behavior is consistent with theory or practice.     

Graduate Economics Programs in the United States

Sterrett and Barr comment on the results of a survey of graduate programs in economics in the United States and on the marked increase in the number of masters degrees granted by the responding institutions.     

Long-run supply responses under self-management

The determination of optimal production is analyzed in a competitive self-managed firm when all inputs are treated as variable. It is shown that the relationship between output and product price depends on a parameter of production technology that relates returns to scale to optimal factor proportions. On this basis, the enterprise planning problem can be reformulated to provide simple analytic results that can be illustrated diagrammatically and could be tested empirically. The approach highlights the sensitivity of results to technical assumptions.