This paper scrutinizes the effects of investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) and national treatment provisions in a two-period model where foreign investment is subject to domestic regulation and a holdup problem. It shows that ISDS can mitigate the holdup problem and increases aggregate...

In view of rising inequality in fast growing Asian developing countries, it is important to study the relationship between economic growth and income inequity. We develop a simple model to establish that economic growth and inequality can bear a complex and non-linear relationship if policy...

We examine how foreign ownership of a firm affects the variety of goods that the firm exports and the number of countries it trades with. We construct a simple theoretical model of how foreign ownership may affect these extensive margins of exports and take this model to data from Germany, one...

We provide an alternative explanation for the commonly observed FDI in developed countries (DCs) considering a vertically related market structure and endogenizing vertical technology transfer (VTT). We show that even though VTT is more costly in a less developed country (LDC), a multinational...

We study a multinational enterprise's (MNE) choice of foreign direct investment (FDI) mode in a vertically related market with local input sourcing. We show that the vertical structure of the market and its features play a crucial role for the MNE's decision: backward linkages, enhanced upstream...

In its Cadbury-Schweppes decision of 12 September 2006 (C-196/04), the Court of Justice of the European Union decided that the UK controlled foreign corporation rules, which were implemented to subject low taxed passive income of foreign affiliates to UK corporate tax, implied an infringement of...

We study the role of competition for the hold-up problem in foreign direct investment in resource-based industries. The host country government is not only unable to commit not to expropriate investment ex post, but is also unable to commit to the provision of local resources. In the case of...

Legal conflicts between multinational firms and host governments are often decided by international arbitration panels - as opposed to courts in the host country - due to provisions in international investment agreements known as Investor State Dispute Settlements (ISDS). Critics fear that ISDS...

The literature has documented a positive effect of foreign ownership on firm performance. But is this effect due to a one-time knowledge transfer or does it rely on continuous injections of knowledge? To shed light on this question we focus on divestments, that is, foreign affiliates that are...

We use Japanese microdata to examine how financial market frictions affect foreign direct investment (FDI). The Japanese land price bubble and banking trouble in the late 1980s and early 1990s serve as a quasi natural experiment to identify two possible transmission channels from financial...