Contrary to mainstream consensus on the dominance of English common law countries in investment prospects, this paper sets a new tone in the legal origins debate by providing empirical validity on the dominance of French civil-law countries in private investment. The assessment is based on 38...

"This inaugural issue of the World Bank Groupl's Global Investment Competitiveness report presents novel analytical insights insights and empirical evidence on foreign direct investment;s (FDI) drivers and contributions to economic transformation. Three key features distinguish this report from...

We analyze the effect of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) on bilateral foreign portfolio investment in equity and debt securities. We find that expropriation risk and the level of a BIT’s investor protection are complementary. Applying a Poisson Pseudo-Maximum-Likelihood model to a panel...