COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented shock to the global economy. While Vietnam has shown resilience, the pandemic has resulted in a supply shock as regular work and supply chains are disrupted. It has also caused a demand shock as people cut back their consumption of several services and...

Recent international experience has shown that excessively complex administrative procedures, required to establish, and operate a business, discourage inflows of foreign direct investment. The authors present a new database on the administrative costs faced by private investors in 32 developing...

The increasing mobility of international firms and the gradual elimination of barriers to global capital flows have stimulated competition among governments to attract foreign direct investment, often through tax incentives. This note reviews the debate about the effectiveness of tax incentives,...