1. Chapter 14: Direct Foreign Investment and the Multinationals
Topics in chapter 14:
What do we mean by Foreign Direct Investment, FDI
Why does FDI occur ?
Who are the major sources and recipients of FDI
What are the advantages and disadvantages of FDI?

2. What do we mean by FDI (or DFI) ?
UNCTAD definition: “ Foreign direct investment is defined as an investment involving management control of a resident entity in one economy by an enterprise resident in another economy. FDI involves a long-term relationship reflecting an investor`s lasting interest in a foreign entity.”

3. Why do firms become multinational ?
Strategic motives drive the decision to invest abroad. They can be summarised as seeking the following
Markets
Raw materials
Production efficiency
Knowledge
Political safety

4. Market imperfections - a rationale for FDI
Multinational firms strive to take advantage of imperfections in national markets for products, factors of production and financial markets
Large international firms are better able to exploit these
FDI often occurs in markets characterised by international oligopolistic competition

5. Oligopolistic markets
Each of these strategic motives can be further subclassified into proactive and defensive investments
Proactive investments are designed to enhance the growth and profitability of the firm itself
Defensive investments are designed to deny growth and profitability to the firm`s competitors

6. Global FDI flows

7. FDI inflows by region

8. Who dominates ?

9. Largest FDI recipients, 2000

10. Largest FDI sources, 2000

11. FDI to developing Asia booms

12. …but FDI to Africa falls

13. The Internationalisation Process

14. What explains FDI ?
Economists have tried to explain the existence of FDI for a long time
This is a complex field, involving several areas of economics
In a perfectly competitive economy, there would be no FDI
Today, economists focus on imperfect competition to explain FDI

15. The Hymer view
In his doctoral dissertation, Stephen Hymer asked the question - how can a foreign company compete successfully in an unfamiliar market, where is must be at a disadvantage compared to local firms?
A firm must possess some kind of advantage to make up for extra costs incurred by operating in an unfamiliar market

16. The Hymer view
Hymer sought to explain FDI by referring to some firms unique or monopolistic advantage which could compensate for the extra costs involved - firm specific (or owner specific) advantages
brand name
managerial expertise
economies of scale
technology

17. Firm specific advantages
Stephen Hymer was killed in a car accident soon after his thesis was completed, and the work was left unnoticed for a while
Since, several other economists have elaborated on his work

18. Firm specific advantages
To possess firm specific advantages is a necessary but not sufficient condition for FDI to take place
Why does the firm not serve the foreign market by exports ?
Why does it not licence a domestic firm to produce ?
We must try to understand why the firm wishes to make use of its advantage itself

19. Market imperfections
Due to market imperfections, there may be several reasons why a firm wants to make use of its monopolistic advantage itself (or organise an activity itself)
Buckley and Casson (influenced by Coase), suggested that a firm overcomes market imperfections by creating its own market - internalisation

20. Internalisation
The theory of internalisation was long regarded as a theory of why FDI occurs
By internalising across national boundaries, a firm becomes multinational
Some economists have suggested that even though ownership specific advantages and internalisation advantages are necessary for FDI to occur, it is still not a sufficient explanation

21. John H. Dunning
John Dunning agrees that ownership specific advantages as well as internalisation advantages are necessary, but he goes on to add that it must be in the firms interest to use these in combination with a least some factor inputs located abroad - so called location specific advantages

22. John H Dunning, contd..
Dunning combines Ownership specific advantages, Internalisation specific advantages and Location specific advantages into his “eclectic” approach to FDI - the so called O-L-I paradigm of international production
The O-L-I paradigm is to a large extent regarded as the state of the art in FDI theory

23. The O-L-I paradigm
A firm must possess ownership specific advantages to make up for the extra costs incurred when operating in an unfamiliar market
It must be in the firms best interest to internalise these rather than to sell them or otherwise make them available to others
It must be in the firms best interest to use its advantages in combination with some factor inputs located abroad - location specific advantages

24. Is FDI good or bad for you ?
Today, academic interest has shifted towards understanding the effects of FDI on world economic development
This is a particularly hotly debated theme world wide, but possibly not an area where generalisation is possible or appropriate

25. Assessing the consequences of MNE activity
How can multinational enterprises (MNEs) affect economic welfare ?
Which effects should we look for ?
Are the effects good or bad ?
How can the MNEs be controlled ?

26. The Big Questions
Is the impact of FDI on economic welfare a good or bad thing ?
If it is good, how can it become even better ?
Do we wish our country to be tied to an international division of labour fashioned or influenced by foreign MNE activity ?

27. Hostility is the order of the day (or has been, at least)
Many politicians have been extremely critical of MNE – activity
These are large and very powerful companies – “exploiting poor countries”
Companies are footloose – their bargaining power is very strong
Companies have often been seen as instruments in “new colonialisation”

28. Effects which need to be considered
Resource transfer effects
supply of capital, technology and management
Trade and balance of payments effects
initial inflow and subsequent flows
Competitive and anti-competitive effects
MNEs operate in oligopolistic markets
Sovereignity and autonomy effects
There may be some loss of national autonomy

29. We can draw one lesson…
Literally thousands of studies have been carried out to investigate these questions, but there is no satisfactory general answers to these questions
Impacts will depend on country-, industry and firm specific characteristics and the kind of FDI being underaken

30. A change of hart ?
In the last decade or two, MNE activity has been more favourably assessed
their impact on development may be positive after all
“multinationals – come back”
why this change of hart ?

31. Do you agree ?
Dunning (p. 212) “In the 1990s, MNEs are the main producers and organisers of the knowledge based assets now primarily responsible for advancing global economic prosperity, and they are the principal cross border disseminators of the fruits of these assets”

32. The major benefit of FDI ?
FDI should be evaluated based on its contribution to the improvement of the competitiveness of the resources and asset-creating capabilities located within their areas of jurisdiction
Is this the single most important objective for many governments in the short and long term ?