"This paper explores various strategic options available to Japanese firms faced with the increasing market pressures in the global economy. Whether Japanese firms are able to retain the competitive edge will depend on the continuing gains in their manufacturing capability, their capacity to...

"Globalization brings opportunities and pressures for domestic firms in emerging markets to innovate and improve their competitive position. Using data on firms in 27 transition economies, the authors test for the effects of globalization through the impact of increased competition and foreign...

The objective of this report is to explore firm competitiveness, the investment climate, and growth in Malaysia. This report is structured as follows. The first two chapters provide an assessment of the investment climate. The last two chapters examine how productivity enhancing programs, skills...

Azerbaijan's early transition to an independent, market-based economy has been tumultuous, entailing significant economic costs, and social impacts. Yet, unlike many transition economies, sound economic reforms since 1995, have enabled the country to achieve macroeconomic stability, and resume...

Azerbaijan's early transition to an independent, market-based economy has been tumultuous, entailing significant economic costs, and social impacts. Yet, unlike many transition economies, sound economic reforms since 1995, have enabled the country to achieve macroeconomic stability, and resume...

"During the 1990s, foreign direct investment in producer service sectors in Latin America was massive. Such investment may increase the quality of services, reduce their cost, and offer opportunities for knowledge spillovers to downstream users of the services. This paper examines the effects of...

"This paper uses micro data from the Indonesian Census of Manufacturing to analyze the causal relationship between foreign ownership and plant productivity. To control for the possible endogeneity of the FDI decision, the difference in differences approach is combined with a matching technique....

This report addresses the following issues: Chapter one takes stock of the integration policies implemented since the early 1970s and assessed their impact on foreign direct investments (FDI), exports and employment. Chapter two looks at today's major challenges in the manufacturing sector and...