IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_421.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Civil and Political Repression Really Boost Foreign Direct Investments?

Author

Listed:
  • Philipp Harms
  • Heinrich Ursprung

Abstract

Multinational enterprises are often accused to have a preference for investing in countries in which the working populations' civil and political rights are largely disregarded. This paper presents an empirical investigation of the popular "political repression boosts FDI" hypothesis and arrives at the conclusion that the hypothesis is not supported. On the contrary, multinational enterprises rather appear to be attracted by countries in which civil and political freedom is respected. Our finding thus supports the notion that there is a positive relationship between democracy and economic growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Philipp Harms & Heinrich Ursprung, 2001. "Do Civil and Political Repression Really Boost Foreign Direct Investments?," CESifo Working Paper Series 421, CESifo.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_421
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo_wp421.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alesina, Alberto & Dollar, David, 2000. "Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 33-63, March.
    2. de Haan, Jakob & Sturm, Jan-Egbert, 2000. "On the relationship between economic freedom and economic growth," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 215-241, June.
    3. Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "How Taxing is Corruption on International Investors?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 1-11, February.
    4. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    5. Olson, Mancur, Jr & Sarna, Naveen & Swamy, Anand V, 2000. "Governance and Growth: A Simple Hypothesis Explaining Cross-Country Differences in Productivity Growth," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 102(3-4), pages 341-364, March.
    6. Roland Bénabou, 1996. "Inequality and Growth," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1996, Volume 11, pages 11-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Schneider, Friedrich & Frey, Bruno S., 1985. "Economic and political determinants of foreign direct investment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 161-175, February.
    8. Beata K. Smarzynska & Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "Corruption and Composition of Foreign Direct Investment: Firm-Level Evidence," NBER Working Papers 7969, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Keech,William R., 1995. "Economic Politics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521462068, January.
    10. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    11. Günther G. Schulze & Heinrich W. Ursprung, 1999. "Globalisation of the Economy and the Nation State," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 295-352, May.
    12. repec:bla:jecsur:v:11:y:1997:i:2:p:163-90 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Keech,William R., 1995. "Economic Politics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521467681, January.
    14. William T. Dickens & Lawrence F. Katz, 1986. "Interindustry Wage Differences and Industry Characteristics," NBER Working Papers 2014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Wheeler, David & Mody, Ashoka, 1992. "International investment location decisions : The case of U.S. firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1-2), pages 57-76, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Egger, Peter & Winner, Hannes, 2005. "Evidence on corruption as an incentive for foreign direct investment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 932-952, December.
    2. Busse, Matthias & Hefeker, Carsten, 2007. "Political risk, institutions and foreign direct investment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 397-415, June.
    3. Philipp Harms & Matthias Lutz, 2003. "Aid, Governance, and Private Foreign Investment: Some Puzzling Findings and a Possible Explanation," Working Papers 03.04, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.
    4. Michel Beine & Khalid Sekkat, 2014. "Emigration and origin country's institutions: does the destination country matter?," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 20-44, January.
    5. Pierre-Guillaume Méon & Khalid Sekkat, 2007. "Revisiting the relationship between governance and foreign direct investment," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 50(1), pages 41-61.
    6. Busse, Matthias & Spielmann, Christian, 2003. "Gender Discrimination and the International Division of Labour," HWWA Discussion Papers 245, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA).
    7. Michel Beine & Khalid Sekkat, 2013. "Skilled migration and the transfer of institutional norms," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-19, December.
    8. Fathi Ali & Norbert Fiess & Ronald MacDonald, 2010. "Do Institutions Matter for Foreign Direct Investment?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 201-219, April.
    9. Dimitra Mitsi & Constantina Kottaridi, 2022. "Fiscal and non-fiscal institutional context effects and foreign direct investment: empirical evidence in developing countries," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 72(1-2), pages 11-33, January-J.
    10. Reece, Christopher & Sam, Abdoul G., 2012. "Impact of Pension Privatization on Foreign Direct Investment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 291-302.
    11. Sekkat, Khalid, 2012. "Manufactured Exports and FDI in Southern Mediterranean Countries: Evolution, determinants and prospects," CEPS Papers 6849, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    12. Rahim M. Quazi, 2014. "Corruption and Foreign Direct Investment in East Asia and South Asia: An Econometric Study," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 4(2), pages 231-242.
    13. Pierre‐Guillaume Méon & Khalid Sekkat, 2004. "Does the Quality of Institutions Limit the MENA's Integration in the World Economy?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(9), pages 1475-1498, September.
    14. Dašić Miloš, 2022. "Political Risk and Quality of Governance as Determinants of Foreign Direct Investments in the Transition Countries," Economic Themes, Sciendo, vol. 60(3), pages 343-367, September.
    15. Alsan, Marcella & Bloom, David E. & Canning, David, 2006. "The effect of population health on foreign direct investment inflows to low- and middle-income countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 613-630, April.
    16. Bersan Haliti & Safet Merovci, 2020. "The Impact of the Investment Environment on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the European Transition Economies," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 1, pages 138-147, March.
    17. Dollar, David & Hallward-Driemeier, Mary & Mengistae, Taye, 2006. "Investment climate and international integration," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1498-1516, September.
    18. Disdier, Anne-Celia & Mayer, Thierry, 2004. "How different is Eastern Europe? Structure and determinants of location choices by French firms in Eastern and Western Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 280-296, June.
    19. Silvio Traverso & Guido Bonatti, 2015. "Education and FDI: An Insight from US Outflows," Journal of Social Economics, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 2(3), pages 101-116.
    20. Kinda, Tidiane, 2010. "Investment Climate and FDI in Developing Countries: Firm-Level Evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 498-513, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_421. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.