Rights, Institutions and FDI: An Empirical Assessment

Abstract:     
A burgeoning body of literature has recently begun to assess the sociopolitical factors that influence investment decisions, including the nature of domestic institutions, societal rights, and participation in international institutions and agreements. Oddly enough, these have evolved largely as separate lines of research, and little effort has been made to compare the relative importance of these sociopolitical factors in making investment decisions. Moreover, though the diverse nature of FDI is widely noted, extant research relies almost exclusively upon the examination of aggregate FDI. As a result, scholars have little insight into the ways that investors prioritize these factors, or how they vary across different industries. In an effort to synthesize these strands of research and further deepen our understanding of the determinants of investment decisions, this study will model the prospective impact of several factors that have been found to significantly influence FDI – democratic governance, human rights, and commitment to international trade agreements and investment treaties – across multiple investment sectors.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 30

working papers series