This paper explores the welfare consequences of foreign investment taxation in a small open economy, based on the notion that the true productivity of imported capital may be unknown to policy-makers. It is shown that while asymmetric information between capital importers and the host government precludes the use of a productivity specific policy measure, an across-the-board policy suffers from...

This short paper explores the complementarity between foreign aid and foreign direct investment (FDI). Recent studies on aid concluded that aid should come to an end or be reduced with a radical modification of the terms and conditions and FDI and trade should replace aid as the engine of development. In this paper, we argue that aid complements FDI and advances the efficacy of FDI in promoting...

We focus on investor-state dispute settlement provisions contained in various, though far from all, bilateral investment treaties as a possible determinant of BIT-related effects on bilateral FDI flows. Our estimation results prove to be sensitive to the specification of these provisions as well as the inclusion of transition countries in the sample. Stricter dispute settlement provisions do no...

The PaPer examines the shifts in attitudes to foreign investment; charts the dimensions and composition of capital flows to develeping countries; outlines existing barriers and the effects of taxation on these flows, and critically examines the demand for their regulation in the light of the Asian crisis. JEL classification: F3, F21, F23 Address: Dept. of Economics, UCLA, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Lo...

We study portfolio allocation and characterize contracts issued by firms in the international financial market when investors exhibit ambiguity aversion and perceive ambiguity in assets issued in foreign locations. Increases in the variance of their risky production process cause firms to issue assets with a higher variable payment (equity). Hikes in investors’ perceived ambiguity have the oppo...

Economic integration is examined in a multi-economy Schumpeterian growth model where economies differ in their research environment, and consequently in the productivity of R&D. We show that economies with more or less the same productivity of R&D integrate. In equilibrium, there can be many common markets with different growth rates as well as stagnating economies with decreasing relative inco...

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 ...

This paper uses panel Granger causality tests to study the relationship between sector specific FDI and CO2 emissions. Using a sample of 18 Latin American countries for the 1980-2007 period, we find causality running from FDI in polluting intensive industries (“the dirty sector”) to CO2 emissions per capita. This result is robust to controlling for other factors associated with CO2 emissions an...

The present paper seeks to explain the pattern of income redistribution in a globalised world of increased market income inequality and lower costs of factor mobility. In some countries, larger market income inequality has been met by an increased redistributive effort, thus keeping the distribution of disposable incomes relatively stable. In other countries, larger market inequality has been a...

Though the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) has failed, the original draft is likely to serve as a basis for future negotiations. This article gives a critical assessment of the draft from an industrial economics point of view. First, I summarize the contents of the agreement which is relevant for market structure and competition. Then I develop the industrial economics approach, whic...