FDI,market signal and financing constraints of firms in China

On the basis of an augmented Euler equation, we use firm survey data provided by the World Bank to investigate the impact of FDI (foreign direct investment) on the financing constraints of firms in China. First we calculate the forward and backward linkages of FDI. Then through empirical estimation, we find that only private firms have financing constraints and that the incoming FDI alleviates this situation. Private firms with more foreign capital shares or having stronger vertical linkage with FDI can get financial resources easily. Furthermore, industries hosting a large amount of FDI are favorite clients of the financial institutions because they are usually much more competitive in the world. As a result, the private firms in these industries also have easier access to financial resources. In the financial market, FDI is a helping hand that reduces the information asymmetry between firms and financial institutions. Financial resources go where FDI goes, which to some extent improves the allocation efficiency.     

The composition of international capital flows: risk sharing through foreign direct investment

Evidence on international capital flows suggests that foreign direct investment (FDI) is less volatile than other financial flows. To explain this finding I model international capital flows under the assumptions of imperfect enforcement of financial contracts and inalienability of FDI. Imperfect enforcement of contracts leads to endogenous financing constraints and the pricing of default risk. Inalienability implies that it is not as advantageous to expropriate FDI relative to other flows. These features combine to give a risk sharing advantage to FDI over other capital flows. This risk sharing advantage of FDI translates into a lower default premium and lower sensitivity to changes in a country’s financing constraint.The model offers the new implication that financially constrained countries should borrow relatively more through FDI. This is because FDI is harder to expropriate and not because FDI is more productive or less volatile. Using several creditworthiness and country risk ratings to measure financing constraints, I present new evidence linking FDI and financing constraints. Moreover, numerical simulations of the model generate stronger serial correlation for FDI than for other flows into developing countries. This corroborates the view that non-FDI flows are more short-term and more likely to change direction.     

German Direct Investment in the UK, 1871–1918

This article examines German direct investment in the United Kingdom between 1871 and 1918. It is based on a new databank encompassing 179 empirical cases of FDI in sales subsidiaries, production units and service sector companies during a period when Anglo-German trade was intensive. FDI was growing as well, due both to the increasing competitiveness of German companies and to rising British non-tariff barriers to trade. German FDI in Britain is put into perspective by comparing it with German FDI elsewhere and with other FDI in the UK. Against this background the article ascertains from a German home country perspective what shape and extent investments took. Investments originating from 14 different branches of the economy are analysed according to type of investment, capital invested, branch, products, legal form chosen, date of entry, and location in the UK. The determinants behind investments are examined, and German FDI in this period is shown to be multi-causal.     

SMEs,foreign direct investment and financial constraints: The case of Belgium

This paper explores the problems experienced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with international ambitions in gaining access to debt and equity finance for foreign direct investment (FDI) projects. We develop several arguments for why such small businesses are expected to face severe financing constraints for foreign investments and provide an explorative empirical study with both the demand and supply side of FDI finance. We have interviewed thirty-two Belgian SMEs that carry out FDI, five banks and five venture capitalists. Based on the SME discussions, we have composed a questionnaire that was sent to the interviewed SMEs. The information problems and lack of collateral that often characterize international investment, the home bias of financiers and the capital gearing method used by banks to evaluate small firms’ foreign projects give rise to financial constraints for SMEs’ FDI projects. The reported finance gap hinders small firms’ (international) development and leads to suboptimal home and FDI host country development.     

The Politics of Self–Restraint: FDI Subsidies and Japanese Mercantilism

Home governments seek to enhance the international competitiveness of private enterprises not only through export credit, but also through preferential loans for foreign direct investment (FDI). Indeed, contrary to the common image of nation‐states resenting their loss of jurisdiction over the mobile transnational corporation, some governments have become active financiers of multinational investment to serve their industrial policy goals. The uneven use by industrialized states of preferential credit to further MNC expansion challenges the current characterization of home government policy as both homogenous and ineffective for the task of industrial promotion. The world's most active state in FDI finance, Japan, has enjoyed an inordinate degree of freedom to engage in subsidization of MNC investment since no international regime on FDI credit, similar to the OECD arrangement on government export finance, exists. Moreover, Japanese labor has not challenged the legitimacy of state FDI finance. In the absence of international or societal constraints on soft FDI credit, Japanese self‐restraint in FDI subsidization is better explained by the internal budgetary makeup of government financial institutions with a mandate to finance FDI. Treasury bureaucrats concerned with healthy public finances and politicians eager to reward core support groups, have repeatedly competed for control over the budgetary strings on soft FDI finance. This political contest is far from over. This paper, therefore, highlights the political agency behind rules of financial discipline that have so far inhibited Japanese rent‐seeking international economic behavior.     

The impact of regulatory quality on intra-foreign direct investment flows in the ASEAN markets

Using a panel data set containing information on FDI flows from home to host countries, this paper examines the impact of changes in the quality of government regulatory effectiveness and governance practices upon the direction of outward FDI flows between five ASEAN economies of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. The results show that a deterioration in the effectiveness and enforcement of investment regulations (such as price controls and excessive regulation in foreign trade and business development) have an adverse effect upon intra-ASEAN FDI, and are significant factors in explaining the recent downward trend in ASEAN FDI flows. These results are robust to changes in a number of controlling variables for various economic conditions that the extant FDI literature consider. Also, these results have several significant implications for future policy makers in recommending means to revitalize intra-ASEAN investment.     

The Impact of FDI Inflow on Domestic Firms’ Uptake of CSR Activities: The Moderating Effects of Host Institutions

This study examines whether foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow helps or hinders local firms’ uptake of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in a developing host country. The study further examines the interaction effect of host institutions on the relationship between FDI inflow and local firms’ uptake of CSR activities. Results of hierarchical regression analysis of data from a sample of 227 local firms in Ghana, reveal that local firms’ uptake of CSR improves significantly with an increasing inflow of FDI through knowledge transfer. Host institutions are also found to influence the transfer of CSR activities from foreign firms to local firms. However, when the quality of institutions is very high, the impact of FDI on local firms’ CSR activities diminishes. Research and practical implications of these findings are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Quantitative Evaluation of the Determinants of Export and FDI: Firm‐level Evidence from Japan

Using firm‐level data for Japan, this paper examines the determinants of the export and foreign direct investment (FDI) decision. We contribute to the literature by employing a mixed logit model, i.e. a multinomial logit model with random intercepts and random coefficients, to incorporate any unobserved firm heterogeneity and by paying special attention to the quantitative significance of the determinants. We find that while the impact of productivity on the export and FDI decision is positive and statistically significant, it is economically negligible. The effect of firm size, credit constraints and information spillovers from experienced firms is also small in magnitude. A quantitatively dominant determinant of the export and FDI decision is instead the prior status of firms in terms of internationalisation. In addition, the use of the mixed logit model enables us to find a substantial role of unobserved firm characteristics in internationalisation of the firm. These findings suggest that entry costs to foreign markets, which substantially vary in size across firms, play an important role in the export and FDI decision. In addition, given that the negligible effect of productivity and the dominant effect of prior status appear to be more prominent in Japan than in some other countries, this study helps highlight the uniqueness of Japanese firms.     

Reforming Property Rights Institutions in Developing Countries: Can FDI Inflows Help?

This paper analyses factors that can facilitate property rights institutions reform in developing countries (DC). Inspired by the works of North and Weingast (Journal of Economic History, 49, 1989, 803) and Acemoglu et al. (American Economic Review, 95, 2005a, 546; 2008) relating to the process of institutional reforms in England during the seventeenth century, I assume that FDI inflows could contribute to property rights reform in DC that are initially endowed with a minimum of effective institutions of constraints on the executive (i.e. effective institutions of checks and balances). Using five‐year panel data over the period 1970–2005 with a sample of 80 DC, and after correcting for endogeneity, I find that conditioned on the initial level of constraints on the executive, the effect of FDI inflows on the probability of reforming property rights is positive and significant. The minimum level of constraints on the executive necessary for the catalytic role of FDI inflows in reforming property rights institutions is 3.6. Only 20 out of the 80 DC in the sample have this minimum level of constraints on the executive. Among the 20 countries five are in sub‐Saharan Africa.     

"You know we are not an Employment Agency": Manpower, Government, and the Development of the Temporary Help Industry in Britain

This article looks at the early development of the temporaryhelp industry in Britain. It focuses on the activities of oneof the largest suppliers of temporary workers, Manpower, inthe late 1960s and early 1970s. Drawing on material from TheUK National Archives, the article examines Manpower's effortsto gain access as a genuine employer to the state employmentexchange network to advertise their temporary vacancies. Thearticle reveals the incremental changes in attitude within thegovernment towards Manpower's activities and argues that thisgave the company a competitive advantage over other employmentagencies, facilitating their development of relations with thegovernment and the trade unions in Britain over the 1970s and1980s. The main conclusion of the article is that explicit attentionneeds to be paid to the actions and strategies of agencies themselvesin order to develop an adequate understanding of the growthand development of the temporary help industry.     

North‐South foreign direct investment and bilateral investment treaties

Bilateral investment treaties (BIT s) have become increasingly popular as a means of encouraging foreign direct investment (FDI ) from developed to developing countries. We adopt a difference‐in‐difference analysis to deal with the problem of self‐selection when estimating the effects of BIT s on FDI flows from a sample of OECD countries to a broader sample of lesser developed countries. Our results indicate that forming a BIT with a developed country significantly increases FDI inflows to developing countries. We further find that the development of new FDI flows and the reinvigoration of deteriorating FDI relationships accounts for the majority of the increase in FDI flows due to BIT formation.     

State policies and the challenges in attracting foreign direct investment: A review of the Ghana experience

Foreign direct investment (FDI) to low‐income countries has not only received much publicity in the past two decades due to its economic importance, but its overall flow to these countries has also significantly increased in both relative and absolute terms. However, only a few sub‐Saharan African countries have been successful in attracting significant FDI flows. This article examines Ghana's experience in attracting FDI. Thus, the main thrust of this article is threefold. First, it evaluates the main economic policy adopted by the government from 1981 to 2002 to reverse the post‐independence economic decline. Second, it examines how the policies facilitated the attraction of FDI inflows to Ghana. Finally, it reviews some of the problems that impede the attraction of value‐added FDI inflows to Ghana. Qualitative analysis of available evidence reveals that the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), the main economic reform policy, has led to an increase in the number of multinationals investing in Ghana. This article argues that Ghana's SAP has had some degree of success in many areas, including the lowering of inflation; promotion of an environment of financial stability; elimination of the licensing requirement; the opening of previously closed sectors; removal of tariff barriers that prohibit FDI inflows; abolishing exchange controls; and reducing opportunities for the foreign exchange black market. In spite of the developments, there are still serious challenges that hamper the attraction of FDI inflows into the country. This article contends that there is the need for urgent action to tackle these challenges. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

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.     

How did investor‐state dispute settlement get a bad rap? Blame it on NAFTA,of course

In the short history of the US bilateral investment treaty (BIT) programme, there have been no instances of dispute settlement cases initiated against the United States by firms from BIT countries. The NAFTA experience changed that. Where other studies have only hinted at the reasons for NAFTA controversies, this paper makes clear three causal factors: (i) changing patterns and intensity of FDI, (ii) the application of those rules to developed countries amid those changing FDI patterns and (iii) ambiguities in ISDS rules themselves. The paper explores these and traces the ways in which lessons of the NAFTA have been instrumental in changing the pursuit of investment protection agreements. BITs used to be uncontroversial, but the NAFTA focused attention on reforms to ISDS that maintain the utility of BITs in the governance of FDI, without creating a legal structure for simply challenging the state.     

The Effects of Greenfield FDI and Cross‐border M&As on Total Factor Productivity

We examine the effects of greenfield FDI and cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on total factor productivity (TFP) in developed and developing host countries of FDI. Using panel data for up to 123 countries over the period from 2003 to 2011, we find that greenfield FDI has no statistically significant effect on TFP, while M&As have a positive effect on TFP in the total sample. Greenfield FDI and M&As both appear to be ineffective in increasing TFP in the subsample of developing countries. In contrast, M&As have a strong and positive effect on TFP in the subsample of developed countries.     

Escape FDI and the dynamics of a cumulative process of institutional misalignment and contestation: Stress,strain and failure

We argue that escape foreign direct investment (FDI) happens when unknown future “rules of the game” cause concern about the continued productive capacity of the economy. Adapting the stress-strain-fail model of materials failure, we argue that escape FDI is a process with three cumulative phases. Conditions for escape FDI (stress) are created by institutional deterioration and contained contestation. Limited escape FDI (strain) results from periods of societal instability and/or inadequate institutional reforms. Extensive escape FDI (failure) results from pervasive societal instability and/or fundamental changes in institutions. Using a historical approach, we develop these propositions for South Africa, 1956 to 2012.     

The Impact of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) from Market Economies to Centrally Planned Countries

Despite the recent economic slump and subsequent reductions and fluctuations of investment ­activities undertaken by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in host markets, the overall volume of foreign direct investment (FDI) has significantly grown over the past three decades. The major proportion of the FDI flows from market economies to centrally planned countries, with the latter currently receiving huge amounts of inward FDI from the West. A representative example of this flow is China. China is often referred to as the factory of the world and/or the black hole of inward FDI. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How Does Inward FDI Hinder or Promote Outward FDI? Three Cases of Chinese Automotive Industry

In this paper we investigate the mechanisms underlying dynamic linkages between inward FDI and outward internationalization in the Chinese automotive industry. While several studies have examined the relationship between inward and outward FDI using empirical data, this is among the first to employ a case study approach to investigate how international joint ventures (IJVs) established between foreign and Chinese automakers can shape their internationalization motivation, degree, and speed. We discuss some unique features of Chinese carmakers with and without IJVs to elucidate how firms without IJVs will be more driven to expand internationally while firms with IJVs face constraints in venturing abroad.     

"Rosie the Realtor" and the Re-Gendering of Real Estate Brokerage, 1930-1960

Rapidly increasing numbers of women entered the field of realestate brokerage from the 1930s through the 1950s. "Rosie theRealtor" took advantage of the postwar building boom to createan expanding career niche, capturing residential brokerage asa female domain. In the process, she stretched gendered boundariesin the masculine world of brokerage to the breaking point. Employinga complex and internally antagonistic mix of liberal feministand conservative ideologies, female realtors created their ownprofessional space, expanding career opportunities for womenat the same time that their economic and political practicesreinforced the constraints of domesticity.     

Greenfield FDI,cross-border M&As,and government size

This study examines the effects of greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on government size in host countries of FDI. Using panel data for up to 130 countries for the period from 2003 to 2011, the study specifically tests the compensation hypothesis, suggesting that by increasing economic insecurity, economic openness leads to larger government size. It is found that greenfield FDI increases labour market volatility and thereby economic insecurity while M&As are not significantly associated with labour market volatility. The main results of this study are that greenfield FDI has a robust positive effect on government size, while M&As have no statistically significant effect on government size in the total sample of developed and developing countries, as well as in the sub-samples of developed and developing countries.