Technical progress is at the heart of economic growth and development. New or improved technology can be achieved through own research and innovations or through the absorption and adaptation of foreign technologies. To facilitate such technical progress requires a complex system of supporting...

After a review of the literature, we conclude that there is potential for significant “spillover effects” from FDI into host countries. However, we identify some limitations of this potential to do with the stock of human capital, the interest in local firms of promoting skills transfer and...

This paper suggests that the use of investment incentives focusing exclusively on foreign firms, although motivated in some cases from a theoretical point of view, is generally not an efficient way to raise national welfare. The main reason is that the strongest theoretical motive for financial...

This paper analyzes the evolution of industrial competitiveness in Sweden and Finland in a long-term perspective. The first part looks at the foundations for industrial take-off in Sweden, with some focus on the development of institutions for the creation and dissemination of the skills and...

Wages in domestically- owned Indonesian manufacturing plants taken over by foreign firms increased sharply between the year before takeover and two years after takeover, relative to plants remaining in domestic ownership. Blue- collar wage levels in these plants had been less than 10 per cent...