This study examines the impact of international organizations on the institutional development of investment activity through the lens of foreign direct investment (FDI) flow asymmetry. The paper offers an approach to computing an integrated Financial Asymmetry Index, formalizing the degree and...

This paper is one of five case studies which is a part of a larger project looking at the various effects that trade and investment can have on innovation. This paper studies the effect of domestic reform including trade on New Zealand's agriculture sector. Agricultural and trade reform has led...

This paper is one of five case studies which is a part of a larger project looking at the various effects that trade and investment can have on innovation. This paper studies the effect of deregulation and trade reform on South Africa's agriculture sector. South Africa's agriculture sector is...

Concentrates on identifying the mechanisms by which foreign investment affects productivity in recipient countries. Conducts a firm-level study of manufacturing plants in Mexico and test for performance differences embodied in factor productivity between domestic and foreign (majority and...

While the theoretical literature on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) focuses largely on movements in capital and firm specific technology, recent empirical evidence emphasizes primarily the local human capital necessary to absorb FDI technology. We examine how human capital affects FDI and add a...

The paper shows how a tax holiday may signal to a skepticalcapital market that the future level of taxation will be moderate.After the signal has informed investors that the host countrygovernment is a low-spender, the tax profile flattens out, correspondingto a tax reform stage. Contrary to the...

This paper examines the problems in establishing currency convertibility- and the optimal timing- in formerly planned economies making the transition to market-oriented systems.

This Selected Issues paper investigates the economic importance of institutions in Ukraine, and attempts to quantify the potential benefits of market-friendly structural reforms. The paper reviews some of the key findings of the development-accounting literature, which has tried to explain the...

The Selected Issues paper provides an overview of trends, performance export growth, value added, and employment, account of the structure and evolution of Lesotho's textiles during the decade through 2002, and discusses future prospects and key issues. It analyzes the implications of the...