Convergence of accounting standards and foreign direct investment

Since the development of the eclectic paradigm by Dunning (1977, 1988, 1993), many studies have investigated different forms of location advantages that attract foreign direct investment (FDI). In this study, we consider accounting standards as a component of the institutional infrastructure of a location and hypothesize that the convergence of domestic and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) promotes FDI as it reduces information processing costs for foreign investors.² We also hypothesize that the effect of reduced information costs is stronger for partner countries whose accounting systems showed greater pre-convergence differences because they magnify the facilitating role of accounting standard convergence for FDI. Using bilateral FDI data from 30 OECD countries between 2000 and 2005, we find evidence generally consistent with these hypotheses.     

Federalism, weak institutions and the competition for foreign direct investment

This paper shows that vertical fiscal inefficiencies impede federally organized countries in successfully attracting foreign direct investment. Such countries, particularly if characterized by weak institutions, are disadvantaged in the process of bidding for firms and in their ability to commit to a low overall tax burden. The interaction of these problems deteriorates their competitive position vis-à-vis unitary states in the competition for foreign direct investment. These theoretical considerations are in line with recent empirical evidence that suggests that the number of government layers of host countries has significant and sizeable negative effects on the amount of foreign direct investment inflows.      

Host-country governance, tax treaties and US direct investment abroad

We investigate how the quality of the host-country governance and a bilateral US income tax treaty affect the rates of return that US companies require on their foreign direct investment (FDI). Using indexes of corruption and political instability, we find that poor governance causes the companies to require significantly higher rates of return. This lends support to earlier authors who have concluded that poor governance discourages both local investment and inward FDI. After accounting for the quality of host-country governance, however, no evidence could be found that an income tax treaty has any effect on the required rates of return.      

Foreign direct investment and trade: The case of Vietnam

By making use of a gravity model, this paper examines the impact of FDI on exports, imports and net export of Vietnam. The empirical analysis presented in this paper is based on a recently released panel dataset involving Vietnam's 19 major trading partners for the period 1990-2007. The paper also considers the impact of FDI on trade during three sub-periods: the pre-Asian financial crisis, the post-Asian financial crisis and during the Asian financial crisis period. The empirical analysis reveals that a complementary relationship exists between FDI and exports and FDI and imports. While the impact of FDI on net-exports is insignificant during the full sample period, a significant positive relationship exists between net-exports and FDI in the post-Asian financial crisis period.     

Analysis of foreign investment impact on the dynamics of national capitalization structure: A computational intelligence approach

Central and Eastern Europe countries are in the political and economic transitional process of merging with the European Union. How has foreign investment already transformed these countries’ economic sectors and how will it affect the national economies in terms of capitalization across economic sectors in the near future? Our prime consideration is portfolio investment impact on the dynamics of respective countries’ capitalization structure in terms of sectorial investment distribution. The proposed method rests on the artificial intelligence approach (neural network method), which is targeted to grasp non-linear dynamics of heterogeneous foreign investment impact on national capitalization structure.     

The impact of tax on foreign direct investment: Empirical evidence and the implications for tax integration schemes

We estimate the impact of taxation on foreign direct investment (FDI) flows, using data on flows between seven countries for 1984 through 1989, and a sophisticated measure of the cost of capital. We find that the choice between domestic investment and total outward FDI is not significantly affected by taxation but that taxation does affect the location of outward FDI. These results are used to examine the impact of tax integration systems. Giving a tax credit to foreign shareholders may induce a large increase in inward FDI from exemption countries but not from partial-credit countries. For the United States, the total effect would be small.     

Foreign direct investment,exports and economic growth: ADRL and causality analysis for South Africa

The article empirically investigated economic growth as a function of foreign direct investment and exports in South Africa. The article applied the autoregressive distributed lag model, known as the ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration for the long run relationship between economic growth, foreign direct investment and exports. The error correction model was used to examine the short run dynamics; and the VECM Granger causality approach was used to investigate the direction of causality. The article confirmed cointegration between economic growth, foreign direct investment and exports. The article indicates that both foreign direct investment and exports spur economic growth contrary to some studies, which found that FDI does not cause economic growth. The VECM Granger causality analysis found unidirectional causality between economic growth and foreign direct investment running from foreign direct investment to economic growth, unidirectional causality between foreign direct investment and exports running from foreign direct investment to exports and bidirectional causality between economic growth and exports. The article confirms the FDI-led growth hypothesis for South Africa. On the policy front, the government could stimulate foreign direct investment through incentives to investors, creation of a good macroeconomic environment and a careful utilisation of loose monetary policy to grow the economy.     

Financial factors in foreign direct investments: A dynamic analysis of international data

In contrast to existing empirical foreign direct investment (FDI) studies that examine the static effects of strategic or real economic variables, this paper focuses on the impacts of financial variables on FDI outflows for four largest industrial countries using dynamic time series methods. The results show that FDI outflows are non-stationary but have a long-run cointegrating relationship with real exchange rates. In addition, there are causal effects of exchange rates on direct investments in the short run. Multivariate cointegration analysis shows the significance of financial channels such as cost of capital and real wealth through which the real exchange rate effects operate. The effects of financial channels are comparable to those of the real wage rate channel. Overall, the present paper provides significant and methodologically consistent international evidence for dynamic interactions between FDIs and financial variables.     

Foreign direct investment and employment: host country experience

This study investigates the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on employment creation and wages in Ghana. A simultaneous panel regression model is used in estimating the effect FDI has on employment and wages. The results of this study indicate that FDI has a statistically significant and positive effect on employment levels in Ghana, but has an insignificant effect on wages. FDI can greatly augment domestic efforts by creating more jobs in the economy. The results clearly demonstrate that FDI flows affect employment quantitatively, but not necessarily qualitatively. The study identifies other factors including, productivity, wages, sub-sector, and location as important in influencing employment levels. Also, productivity, labour union, firm size, sub-sector, and location are noted as significant in affecting wages in Ghana. The main value of this paper is in respect of the fact that it provides insight into the effects of FDI flow on employment from a host country perspective. The study recommends that FDI should be considered as an integral part of the Ghanaian economic policy in order to spur on economic growth.     

从国际经济学理论视角看企业竞争优势——兼议国际经济学优势思想的演进

本文通过回顾和分析国际经济学中国际贸易理论和国际直接投资理论优势思想的发展和]进,说明了理论研究可以通过对各种市场结构的细分,把优势分析引入到企业内部,并通过对分工、市场结构与交易费用之间的矛盾关系的深入研究,探讨内生优势与外生优势之间的对立统一关系,而企业竞争优势的培育则是一个建立在企业自身独特能力基础上的、综合利用企业内外部各种比较优势的动态累积发展过程。     

中国对美直接投资现状分析与发展对策建议

中国对美直接投资（FDI）在过去近10年时间里保持着快速增长态势,并拥有良好的发展前景。文章归纳了中国对美FDI所表现出的基本特征,全面分析了近年来促进中国对美FDI增长的驱动因素,以及国内企业在对美FDI中遇到的制约因素,指出为继续推动中国对美FDI的快速发展,需要中美两国加强政治上的互信与理解,也需要中国企业充分熟知美国的投资规则,提高自身投资管理技能。     

Dynamic of foreign direct investment in the states of Mexico: An analysis of Markov's spatial chains

The aim of this investigation is to analyze the evolution of the spatio-temporal distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) across Mexican states. The literature that analyzes foreign direct investment in Mexico is numerous and diverse; however, it is argued that the analysis of the spatio-temporal distribution of FDI conditioned to spatial interaction effects in Mexico is still absent. In this sense, by applying the spatial Markov chain approach as proposed by Rey (2001), we found a divergence process in the FDI inflows among Mexican states that seem to get stronger over time. In particular, during the period from 2006 to 2013, the process of divergence toward higher-FDI inflows quantiles occurs among states spatially associated with neighbors in lower-FDI quantiles.     

政策效应对FDI技术溢出的影响--来自中国制造业的证据

研究FDI技术溢出效应是近年国内学者关注的热点问题,大多数学者主要从行业特征、市场结构等角度来考察FDI技术溢出效应的存在性,而少部分学者从整体上讨论了政策效应对FDI技术溢出产生的影响。通过使用交叉变量来测度外贸政策对FDI技术溢出效应的影响程度,研究结果也比较客观地反映了我国制造业的FDI受外贸政策的影响现实,从而对外资政策的调整提供了一定依据。     

浅析我国外商直接投资存在的问题及对策

改革开放以来 ,我国积极利用外商直接投资 ,充分促进了我国经济的发展。但我国在利用外商直接投资中 ,存在着地区分布不平衡、产业结构不合理、投资规模偏小和技术水平偏低等问题。本文在分析上述问题的基础上 ,提出了加强国家政策引导、注重跨国公司引进等措施 ,以促进我国国民经济健康发展。     

商业银行参与PE业务的现状、问题及策略建议

在后危机时代,我国商业银行应积极参与PE业务,实现支持经济可持续增长与拓宽盈利渠道的双赢。现阶段我国商业银行参与PE业务的基本路径可概括为:迂回直投模式、合作模式与间接模式。从外部环境看,我国PE市场发展的税收和政策安排还不够完善,资本市场为PE提供的退出通道较为狭窄,交易透明度有待进一步提高等;而商业银行内部也存在着风险管理、人才筛选等方面的难题。我国商业银行渐进拓展PE业务应制定严格的风险控制导向的业务监督体系和运营操作流程;积极引进和培养专业人才;选择合适的参与方式、投资阶段、投资产业与投资地域等。     

Determination of Renminbi Equilibrium Exchange Rate,Misalignment, and Official Intervention

We use an equilibrium real exchange rates (ERER) model to estimate the equilibrium exchange rate (EER) and hence the misalignment between the EER and actual renminbi (RMB) exchange rate with quarterly data from 1994 to 2012. The effect of various policy changes on this misalignment with a focus on official intervention is then examined. We find that the RMB EER rose 45 percent from 1994 to 2012, mainly due to trade policy and relative technological progress. The central bank’s (the People’s Bank of China) official intervention had quick effect on the misalignment, especially after 2005.     

An analysis of the adoption, perceived benefits, and expected future emphasis of western management accounting practices in Chinese SOEs and JVs

This paper considers the adoption, perceived benefits, and expected future emphasis of western management accounting practices in the Chinese emerging market economy based on a sample of 64 joint ventures (JVs) and 115 State Owned Enterprises (SOE) gathered from a questionnaire survey. The study finds that the level of adoption of management accounting practices is most influenced by ownership type of the enterprise (JV or SOE) and to a lesser extent by the nature of the management accounting techniques to be adopted. A further significant finding is that management accounting practices such as budgeting for controlling costs, profit and sales budgeting, and target costing are perceived to be more beneficial for SOEs compared to JVs. However, responsibility accounting which is traditionally associated with SOEs and accounting for decision making is perceived to be less beneficial to SOEs compared with JVs.     

The relationship between product diversity, usage of advanced manufacturing technologies and activity-based costing adoption

This paper examines the associations between product diversity, usage of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) and activity-based costing (ABC) adoption. Theory strongly suggests that product diversity is a major determinant of the demand for ABC systems. To date, the results of empirical research on the relationship between product diversity and ABC adoption have generally been inconclusive, however, suggesting that there either may be no strong relationship, or that methodological issues may have prevented researchers from consistently finding it. Using a dataset of survey responses from 191 Dutch, medium-sized manufacturing firms, this paper re-examines the relationship between product diversity and ABC adoption. Improving upon the measurement of product diversity and distinguishing between ABC adoption and use, it examines whether the relationship is curvilinear (inverted U-shaped) and/or moderated by usage of AMT. The paper contributes to the literature by showing that, consistent with the underlying theory, product diversity, on average, is positively related to both ABC adoption and ABC use, but also that these relationships are indeed inverted U-shaped and that the relationship with ABC use is negatively moderated by usage of AMT.     

New Evidence on Risk Factors, Characteristics and the Cross-Sectional Variation of Japanese Stock Returns

This paper examines whether the cross-sectional variations in stock returns are better described by systematic risk factors or by firm characteristics such as book-to-market ratios and market capitalization. It provides new evidence from the Japanese stock market based on the recent sample period from 2002 to 2007, which is not addressed in the existing literature. Also, the new results are derived from the generalized method of moments applied to daily returns. The evidence suggests that both the firm size and book-to-market ratio are significantly related to average return premiums. There is mixed evidence, which tends to lend stronger support to the characteristic model rather than the Fama-French three-factor model as more reflective of the return dynamics in the Japanese stock market.