Domestic political connections and international expansion: It's not only ‘who you know’ that matters

Former politicians on the board of directors bring to the firm domestic political connections and political knowledge. Previous research has mainly highlighted the role of contacts, without fully recognizing the role of political knowledge accumulated at home. By focusing on the effect of domestic political connections on foreign direct investment, we show that domestic political knowledge also shapes foreign expansion. We argue that contacts provided by former politicians may not be useful for foreign expansion whilst their political knowledge can be of help in countries with discretionary governments and with similar institutional environments to the one of the home country.     

Do Foreign Firms Transfer Gender Norms in the Labour Market? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Closing the gender gaps in economic opportunities is crucial for boosting economic growth and the empowerment of women. In this paper, we study how foreign firms contribute in reducing gender disparities in the labour market by transferring the gender norms of their country of origin to the affiliates in the host countries. We use cross sectional data on foreign firms located in 19 Sub Saharan Africa countries in 2010 by UNIDO. We find that firms coming from more gender equal countries employ more female workers in their affiliates. This effect is more relevant for the highly skilled female workers.     

Outward foreign direct investment by Polish state-owned multinational enterprises: is ‘stateness’ an asset or a burden?

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are commonly associated with undue advantages due to preferential treatment by the state. Simultaneously they are often quoted as handicapped given the notorious state interference, management problems and agency tensions. They used to be regarded as a mainly domestic issue but in the context of globalisation and the fact that states enter treaties with new obligations, SOEs’ performance ceased to be solely a domestic problem, increasingly so as state-owned multinational enterprises (SOMNEs) emerge. This article presents the results of research on Polish SOEs’ outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). It offers an overview of overseas activities of nine major Polish firms with a state stake and aims to contribute to the conceptual literature on foreign investments conducted by SOMNEs. We distinguish between FDI by SOMNEs as specific – privileged (facilitated) or discriminated (hampered) – investments subject to the home country’s state power and the host country’s state perception.     

Foreign inflows and economic growth: An emiprical study of the SAARC region

The study examines and highlights the impact of selected foreign inflows (aid, trade, FDI, debt and remittances) on the economic growth of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries. The existent literature lacks a comprehensive analysis of the SAARC countries as countries like Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Maldives have largely been ignored due to the shorter time periods of available data. The study is empirical in nature and utilizes panel data techniques on macroeconomic data for the period 2008–2015. Foreign aid and foreign direct investment are found to impact economic growth positively. Foreign debt and trade flows are found to adversely affect economic growth. No relationship is established between the flow of remittances and the economic growth of these countries. The obtained results are robust to different proxy variables and the addition of macroeconomic variables. For the first time, the study provides policy implications based on the data of all SAARC countries. The study recommends focusing on increasing the inflows of resources in the form of aid and foreign direct investment (FDI) from the developed world to achieve higher economic growth.     

FDI facilitated by agglomeration economies: evidence from manufacturing and services joint ventures in China

The open door policy of China’s economic reform since the 1980s has attracted heavy foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into China and especially to Guangdong (particularly the Pearl River Delta region, PRD) and induced significant economic growth during the past two decades. While there exist various classical theories of FDI in attempting to identify the determinants of FDI inflow and to explain the behavior of FDI flows, limited attention has been given from the perspective of agglomeration effects generated by a core-periphery (CP) relation.This paper intends to study the impacts of agglomerations on FDI inflows in the context of Krugman’s CP relation (1991) by investigating (1) the formation of a CP relation via gravity model analysis; (2) whether different types of industry FDI flows will respond differently in the CP-system, given agglomeration effects; and (3) whether FDI origin and firm scale matter in affecting FDI flows.A database consisting of a population frame of 37,742 firm-level manufacturing and services joint ventures investing in Guangdong in 1998 was used. Empirical results show that the agglomerations of the CP relation have affected FDI flow patterns. While both manufacturing and services FDI and sources of investment responded differently to the impacts, smaller firms were found more responsive to the CP-agglomeration settings regardless of FDI by industry type and by source. The significance and implications of the CP-system to further facilitate FDI in the region are discussed.     

主要FDI母国（地区）对华投资的贸易效应分析

由于影响因素众多，不考虑贸易结构的变化，而仅从数量上看，FDI对国际贸易可以产生三种效果，即替代效应、补充效应和不确定效应。具体到不同的东道国和母国，FDI对其国际贸易的最终影响将取决于何种效应占上风。本文即是对中国的投资来源国（地区）的对华投资额与对华贸易额之间的相关关系所作的一个经验分析。此分析是为了检验中国吸收的FDI所产生的双边贸易效果。文中以中国的6个投资来源大国（地区）和贸易伙伴大国（地区）为样本，分别对各国1991—2006年间对华直接投资与对华贸易之间的相关性进行了检验。结果表明，投资对贸易的三种效应在中国都是存在的，情况因国而异。     

建造蕴含竹文化的竹旅游景观研究

竹旅游景观研究结果表明:竹旅游景观资源有竹子植物园、竹主题观赏园、竹景点、竹盆景、竹艺术观赏园、竹文化园6种;竹与精神文化、生活文化、工艺文化、艺术文化等中国传统文化具有历史渊源关系;竹具有其独特的竹韵、竹色、竹境等自然美学特性;造景方式有孤植、丛植、群植、竹径、竹篱、盆栽6种;充分挖掘竹的自然旅游资源、历史人文资源和现代社会旅游资源,设计与建造出蕴含竹文化的竹旅游景观。     

工业经济中外商直接投资与国内投资关系的实证研究

利用工业中26个行业2001-2004年的面板数据，使用固定效应模型，估计了工业经济中外商直接投资与国内投资的关系，结果发现，在这26个行业中，有的行业因外商直接投资的增加挤入了国内投资，而有的行业外商直接投资的增加，挤出了国内投资：在此基础上，本文还通过模型检验了行业外商直接投资挤入或挤出国内投资的影响因素，结果表明，行业的竞争性和劳动密集性是影响其关系的主要因素。     

马来西亚引进FDI的贸易效应分析

自独立以来，马来西亚就注重吸收外商直接投资(FDI)，并希望以此带动出口，扩大贸易。至今，马来西亚的外商直接投资和国际贸易都取得了长足的发展。但是，马来西亚的外商直接投资对贸易的促进作用并没有人们想象的那么大。本文试图丛理论和实证两方面对此作一分析。     

Foreign direct investment and vertical integration of production by Japanese multinationals in Thailand

We test the vertical model of foreign direct investment (FDI) empirically using firm level information on Japanese multinational activity in Thailand. These data allow us to investigate the effects of both home country (Japan) and host country (Thailand) characteristics on the inter-industry pattern of FDI. For 85 manufacturing industries over the period from 1985 to 1995, we find a positive influence of industry variation in skill intensity and market size in the host country and a negative effect of transport costs on the amount of FDI. These results provide strong direct econometric evidence of vertical integration of production across the countries. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (4) (2004) 805–821.