FDI » Books and studies

Internationalisation is not delocalisation

s.labrosse — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:15:35 +0000

In February a report was published in France by the Council of Economic Analysis on the relationship between inward and outward investment. The economists who did this study, Lionel Fontagné and Farid Toubal, did voluntarily exclude the financial in- and outflows and thus considered only material inward and outward FDI. The « score » is impressioning: there is 14 times more outward than inward investment in France, a country considered very attractive, even on a world scale. However, the economists underline that the outward investment is no delocalisation. In fact, the companies investing abroad do this to increase their competitive advantage and thus are able to maintain also their business and create jobs in France. Read more about this topic (in French..): http://purl.manticoretechnology.com/MTC_COMMON/mtcVAWSrv.aspx?ID=7175&Key=EE8740C6-65B0-4C41-8B46-FC2EAC501CEC&URLID=&CID=22591169&CSecKey=5E1ED032-ACC4-46D4-97D1-BB6577C2697E&VAWEmailID=53578&EGUID=c3d0d5be-2216-df11-9b0a-000423e08c67&LID=263718

Quality of Life: France

s.labrosse — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:09:54 +0000

The international magazine ‘International Living’ designated France as the best country to live in for its quality of life (http://www.internationalliving.com/Internal-Components/Further-Resources/quality-of-life-2010). You can get a free copie once your name is registered.

Am I reviving old debates by wondering if quality of life is an important criterium for site location?

Information, always information…

s.labrosse — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:02:16 +0000

A lot of FDI profesionnal underline this fact over and over again: to attract FDI to your region, you’ll have to deliver information. And very well qualified information, and easily accessible. This is true for all economies, even the less developed. Research published with an article published in the Journal of African Business last year confirms this. Below you can read the abstract and you’ll find the weblink.

« Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) foreign direct investment (FDI) share has persistently averaged 1% of global flows. The location decision and perceptions of investors are therefore instructive for policy making. This article factor analyses a survey of perceptions, operations, and motivations of 758 foreign investors in 10 SSA countries. Wefind that the provision of transaction cost-reducing information on industries and markets and utility services to investors before and after a firm’s FDI decision are significant factors. FDI location decision in SSA is influenced strongly by political economy considerations. Labor and production input variables are not influential. »

source: http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=22085260

FDI and development theories

s.labrosse — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:25:25 +0000

It is largely recognized that attracting FDI is a quite advanced stage of development for a third world economy. And thus, that countries starting to attract FDI are developing well. Professor Huang argues the contrary for China: the large inflow of FDI over the years reflects weaknesses rather than of the Chinese economic system. Interested in this theory: read the following book, Selling China: foreign direct investment during the reform era. References at: http://www.amazon.com/Selling-China-Foreign-Investment-Cambridge/dp/0521608864%3FSubscriptionId%3D0HWPT6332HEYTZB5FW82%26tag%3Dksm000550-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0521608864

UNCTAD World Investment Report 2009

s.labrosse — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:47:20 +0000

There it is, the WIR 2009. And indeed, its forecast of a 22% decline in FDI flows to the developing world (see my post earlier this year: http://www.western-france.info/sophie/?p=118 ) has been realized, and even worse: 2008 counted officially a 29% decline of investments into the developed world. The good news is that its prediction of an increase in the share of FDI to transition economies and developing countries has been realized too. However, this is not going to continue, if we may believe UNCTAD, as they predict a global decline for 2009 in all sectors…You definitely need to download this report at: http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Webflyer.asp?intItemID=1397&docID=12171