Company and meal choices considered by Nordic adolescents

This article examines the meal choices considered by Nordic adolescents in two social situations: for themselves and for the family. In addition, the frequency of family meals is compared between the countries studied. The survey data (n = 1539) were collected during 2006–2007 from 9th grade students (aged 14–17 years) in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Analysis was based on both quantitative variables and open‐ended data. Family meals were found to be less common among Finnish respondents than in the remaining data. In all countries but Denmark, the number of parents in the family had an effect on the frequency of family meals. Meals echoing or fully meeting the structural definition of a ‘proper meal’ were most common when describing meals for the family. The difference between the two social situations was most apparent for those who mentioned ‘Fast food dishes’ for themselves. Gender differences in open‐ended questions were smallest in Denmark and most apparent in Norway. Future studies should focus not only on how many of adolescents eat in what is termed an unhealthy way but also on how they themselves perceive and conceptualize eating, and what kinds of justifications they give to their everyday choices in different social contexts.     

Outward foreign investment and export structure: a case study of Taiwan's FDI in Malaysia

As Taiwan's outward FDI was primarily motivated by the relatively lower costs of land and labour in the host countries, one tends to expect that the structure of production and exports in Taiwan would shift toward higher capital and skill intensity. The structure of Taiwan's exports to the ASEAN-4 was concentrated more in higher human and physical capital intensities than Taiwan's total exports to the world. Moreover, Taiwan's exports to the ASEAN-4 were more concentrated on intermediate goods and machinery. A case study of Taiwan's outward FDI in Malaysia indicated that three of the five leading industries that accounted for a large shares of changes on FDI stocks and corresponding export commodities were the same. Pooling estimates also show that FDI has a small but positive impact on Taiwan's exports to the host country. The study further showed that Taiwan's FDI in Malaysia includes mixed tactics of ‘defensive’ and ‘aggressive’ strategies in various industries. In terms of the influence of the presence and economic role of ethnic Chinese on Taiwan's outward FDI, the study showed that the ‘Chinese connection’ has not been a significant factor in determining the industrial distribution of Taiwan's FDI in Malaysia.     

Governance and Globalisation

Unlike the large literature on ‘democracy and trade’, there is a much smaller literature on the effect of the level of democracy in a nation on the level of its foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow. These few studies reveal mixed empirical results, and surprisingly only one study has examined bilateral FDI flows. Moreover, few of these studies use multiple governance indicators separating the ‘pluralism’ effect of democratic institutions from the ‘good governance’ effect, there are no studies on democratic institutions’ various effects on the level of FDI relative to trade, and there are no studies of democratic institutions’ various effects on the selection of countries into FDI. We focus on three contributions. First, we examine the simultaneous effects of the World Bank's (six) Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGIs) – which allow separating the effects of pluralism from those of five other good governance measures – on bilateral trade, FDI and FDI relative to trade using state‐of‐the‐art gravity specifications. Second, we find strong evidence that – after accounting for host governments’ effectiveness in various roles of good governance – a higher level of pluralism as measured by the WGIs’ Voice and Accountability Index reduces trade levels, likely by increasing the ‘voice’ of more protectionist less‐skilled workers, but not FDI levels. Moreover, we find qualitatively different effects of other WGIs – such as political stability – on trade versus FDI flows. Third, we account for firm heterogeneity alongside a large number of zeros in bilateral FDI flows using recent advances in gravity modelling. We distinguish between the (country) intensive and extensive margins and show that pluralism affects FDI inflows negatively at the intensive margin, but positively at the extensive margin.     

Business and Investment Strategies in the Inter-War British Steel Industry: A Case Study of Hadfields Ltd and Bean Cars

This article assesses the last 100 years of Austrian FDI. Before 1914 Austrian firms rarely engaged in FDI, mainly since the large home market had a high growth potential and since Austrian firms - although among the largest domestically - were smaller than their international competitors, less diversified and less vertically integrated, and hence their growth was based domestically and internally oriented. Despite the ‘automatic’ increase of FDI through the new borders in the early inter-war period, the loss of former markets, the crisis of 1929 and finally the Anschluss affected Austrian FDI negatively. Even in the post-Second World War period Austrian FDI remained subdued, mainly for structural factors and a favourable exporting environment. Only in the years preceding Austria's succession to the European Union in 1995 did FDI increase heavily, and Austrian firms became extensively involved in multinational activities.     

Entry Modes and Firm Performance in a Transition Economy: Evidence from Inward FDI to Romania

The article analyzes the characteristics and performance of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Romania since the 1990s. We provide evidence for some of the commonly advanced propositions about FDI in transition economies, namely the selection of entry and firms’ performance over time and across economic sectors. Contrary to the FDI literature, multinational enterprises in Romania favored greenfield FDI over acquisitions, although this does not apply to oligopolistic and technology intensive industries. Specific relationships between the nationality of the investor, the location and the entry modes decisions are also analyzed. We observed that acquisitions exhibited higher profit margin and turnover compared to greenfield FDI.     

Can Intellectual Property Rights Affect Multinational Enterprises’ Entry Modes? The Chilean Case

Abstract

Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) can choose between exporting, introducing foreign direct investment (FDI), and licensing to a domestic firm among other modes of entry to a new market. Yet, this decision may be affected by the strength of intellectual property rights (IPR). Thus, this paper analyzes the effect of stronger IPR on the entry modes chosen by MNEs. We propose a theoretical model that predicts that in the presence of stronger IPR, MNEs would choose licensing instead of FDI as an entry mode. We test the predictions of the model using plant-level data for Chile for the period 2001–2007. We exploit the exogenous reform of IPR in 2005, controlling for the activities of industries where high levels of technology transfer and imitation are important factors. The main results show that stronger IPR change the mode of entry chosen by MNEs. In this case, FDI is replaced by licensing. This is explained by Chile’s high absorptive capacity during this period. We test whether this effect differs across high- and low-tech industries and conclude that the displacement of FDI is less severe in high-tech industries.     

A spatial approach to the FDI-growth nexus in Spain: Dealing with the headquarters effect

This paper examines the effects of inward FDI on economic growth across the Spanish regions over the period 1996–2013, paying particular attention to the ‘headquarters effect’, namely that FDI is not always registered where it is effectively made but in the region in which the firm’s headquarters is located. By estimating a panel Spatial Durbin Model to allow for the detection of spatial spillovers, two main findings are reported. First, FDI does foster economic growth. Second, only when the headquarters effect is properly addressed do spatial spillovers arise. Hence, this effect is masking the impact of regional FDI spillovers on growth, which affects the reliability of the results and, consequently, FDI policies choice. Importantly, the results are: a) robust to the way of computing the headquarters effect; b) independent of the spatial weight matrix specification; and c) confirmed when splitting FDI into different industrial and service branches.     

Convenience food consumption in the Nordic countries and St. Petersburg area

Building on the theoretical framework provided by sociological research on eating practices, family meals, self‐cooked meals and time use, this study examines national differences and similarities in the use of convenience food in Northern Europe. The study draws on two quantitative sets of data, the primary data set (N = 8248) collected in 2012 in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and the complementary data set (N = 800) collected in St. Petersburg area in 2013. In general, consumers’ attitudes towards convenience food were negative. Time saving was an important motivator for convenience consumption in all countries. The effects of other attitudes were diffuse and factors such as low cost, health effects, and taste of convenience food, affected convenience consumption differently in different countries. In the four Nordic countries women used less convenience food than men. In Finland and in Norway older respondents used convenience food less often than the young. Generally, the use of convenience food was most frequent among those living alone. The effects of education and occupation were small, implying that the phase of life is more important than social stratification in explaining convenience food consumption. In the St. Petersburg data, there were no differences related to social background.     

Innovation,productivity and foreign direct investment-induced R&D spillovers

This article examines the effect of foreign direct investment on innovation and productivity in the host and home countries. I investigate how the flows of knowledge transmitted through FDI affect the production of knowledge in both source and recipient countries, as well as how these flows affect productivity. Using patent citations within FDI as the measure of the degree of ‘access’ that one nation gains to the R&D knowledge of another, and new patents as the measure of innovation, results reveal that there are large differences in the way FDI affects innovation and productivity between countries that are technological leaders, and technological followers. Both inward and outward FDI are found to have a strong positive effect on domestic innovation and productivity in countries that are technological followers. For technological leaders, outward FDI is highly conducive to increased domestic innovation, while inward FDI seems to increase competition between domestic and foreign firms, making it more difficult to come up with new viable ideas. As for domestic productivity, inward FDI is highly beneficial for technological leaders, while outward FDI does not have a significant effect. I conclude that technological followers have much to gain from FDI-induced R&D spillovers, and therefore governments in these countries will find it worthwhile to attract foreign multinationals, while those in the more technologically advanced economies need to weigh the costs and benefits of FDI carefully.     

East Asian FDI and the political economy of local development

This article situates the experience of the North East region within the context of the debates concerning East Asian FDI and the political economy of local development. The analysis looks in detail at the Sedgefield Borough economy to offer a more critical reading of the role of East Asian FDI in local economic development. The study concludes that East Asian FDI is a small but significant segment of the local economy which reveals evidence of some ‘leading edge’ developments in particular areas in tandem with a recurrence of the structural characteristics reminiscent of previous ‘branch plant’ investments. The conclusions for the business support network concern the need to change the focus and apparent control over the local economic development strategy and to forge strong links to the agenda of more active regional institutions and policy being promoted by the current Labour government.     

1998-2010年江苏省引进FDI与碳排放的相关性评估

概述了1998-2010年江苏省引进FDI的规模和结构特征,应用Kaya恒等式评估了1998-2010年江苏省的年度碳排放量。应用单整检验和EG两步检验法,证明了江苏省FDI规模与碳排放量存在协整关系。利用格兰杰因果检验,证明了滞后期为1-3时,江苏省FDI变化是碳排放量变化的原因,但碳排放量变化不是江苏省FDI变化的原因。从产业结构看,江苏省第一产业FDI的变化与碳排放变化不存在因果关系;江苏省第二产业FDI的变化从长期看是碳排放量变化的原因;不论是短期还是长期,江苏省碳排放量的变化均是第三产业FDI规模变化的原因。     

FDI、本土企业集聚及经济增长效应——基于浙江县域面板数据的实证检验

文章基于浙江52县1996年-2005年的面板数据实证检验了外资企业、本土企业集聚及经济增长效应。实证结果表明,外资企业、本土企业空间集聚具有显著的经济增长效应,但是相比于资本来说两者作用效果并不强;外资企业在浙江县域的区位分布并不注重本土企业空间集聚状况,而是更加注重外资企业空间集聚度;本土企业空间集聚是本土企业发展的重要影响因素,而外资企业集聚对本土企业投资反而呈现较小的"挤出效应"。因此,为了进一步提升浙江县域内生经济增长,应加强浙江县域外资企业与本土企业融合,从而提高区域持续的增长潜力。     

产业转移、国际贸易和CO_2排放——来自我国工业的实证分析

文章利用修正的净出口消费指数检验"污染天堂假说"发现,我国没有成为污染产业的"天堂";尽管我国的产业转移是双向的,但工业集聚的程度有所提高。在此基础上,构建CO2排放影响模型实证分析得出以下结论:贸易开放程度对CO2排放有负向影响,提高贸易开放程度有利于降低CO2排放;外商直接投资的存量规模和参与程度对CO2排放均有正向影响,外商直接投资的存量规模或参与程度的提高会增加我国的CO2排放压力。最后指出限制贸易或外商直接投资不能有效降低我国工业的CO2排放,应以产业结构升级为目的,通过提升产业技术水平,降低排放密度来控制CO2的排放规模。     

我国服务业外国直接投资的特征和趋势分析

服务业对外开放是我国对外开放政策的重要组成部分,我国加入世贸组织后,服务业逐渐成为利用外资的重点领域。本文分析了我国服务业外国直接投资的历程和行业特征,并结合加入世贸组织后我国服务市场日益扩大开放的背景,对服务业外国直接投资的发展趋势进行了分析和预测。     

江苏省生产性服务业FDI对制造业的影响研究

本文概述了1998—2011年江苏省生产性服务业FDI的规模和行业特征,发现生产性服务业FDI与制造业具有相同的增长趋势。利州}办整检验和Granger因果检验表明,江苏省生产性服务业FDI与制造业产值之间存在长期稳定的均衡关系,且当滞后期为1时,生产性服务业FDI规模的变化是制造业增加值变化的原因;应用多元线性回归模型对江苏省生产性服务业进行分行业的实证研究。最后,阐述了生产性服务业FDI对制造业影响效应。     

Foreign Direct Investment in China: An Examination of the Literature

Since 1978, when China announced its ‘open-door’ policy to pursue the country's long-term national goal, the Four Modernisations, more than 220,000 foreign funded ventures have been approved. By the end of 1994 some US$300 billion of contracted investment had been agreed and US$95 billion of utilized investment, making the country the most important recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the developing world. This paper analyses the phenomenon of FDI in China. It examines the different forms and composition of FDI, reviewing its development since the early days of the ‘open-door’ policy and analysing its importance for Chinese domestic and export industries, as well as Western investor companies. Furthermore, the paper focuses on the world-wide sources of FDI in China and its distribution by both region and industry. Additionally, it reviews the existing research on FDI in China, emphasizing the investment mode of equity joint venture.     

Host market characteristics,FDI, and the FDI – trade relationship

This paper empirically examines how a host nation's market characteristics, particularly its market maturity and role as an export platform, affect the amount of inward FDI it receives and its FDI?–?bilateral trade relationship with the FDI source. For the period 1989?–?1999, using Japanese outward FDI into 85 geographically and developmentally diverse countries, we find a positive and significant relationship between FDI inflows and the host's market maturity levels. However, the FDI?–?trade interaction between the host and the FDI source appears to vary inversely with the host country's market maturity level. In addition, after controlling for the host's market maturity, we find that the nature of the host's ‘export platform’ status also significantly impacts both inward FDI flows and the FDI?–?trade relationship.     

The impact of bilateral tax treaties: A multi-country analysis of FDI inflows into India

This paper models the role of tax treaties in promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) with the help of panel data for 14 countries for the period 1993–2011. A fixed effects (least squares dummy variable) model is developed that captures macroeconomic factors such as gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita income (PCI) in ratio form of home to host country. It also includes bilateral tax treaties as a determinant of FDI inflow. The results show that GDP is a major determinant that is demand driven and per capita income is a major determinant that is supply driven. FDI openness of the home countries and population are also significant determinants. The introduction of the treaty had a positive impact on FDI inflows into India. We get largely significant and positive results for the ‘age of the treaty effect’, especially, in the case of Germany, Switzerland and Japan. The main contribution of the paper is to show that both presence and ‘age of treaty’ are important determinants of FDI flows to India. Further, fundamentals like GDP and PCI are major variables that influence FDI inflows.     

The retail sector in the Nordic countries: A description of the differences, similarities, and uniqueness in the global market

We present an overview of the retail sector in the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. We apply the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index and the Concentration Ratio to estimate the market concentration in the retail sector in each of those countries. The level of concentration in the retail trade in the Nordic countries is relatively high as compared to other European countries, which is reflected in low customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the Nordic countries have a relatively high proportion of their total population living in the capital area, and we consider how that affects their retail trade.