This paper compares the current foreign direct investment (FDI) recession with FDI responses to past economic crises. The authors find that although developed country outflows have taken an equally big hit as major developed countries have after past crises, outflows seem to be bouncing back...

At the moment Romania's economic policy aims to gradually reduce the economic gaps that separate it from developed world economies. In the current international environment, characterized by the internationalization of economic processes, output and financial capital flows, foreign direct...

While SWF investment objectives to some extent reflect inherent characteristics, notable differences in strategic asset allocation (SAA) exist even amongst SWFs of similar types. Even so, this paper shows that the global crisis may have changed SWF’s asset allocations in ways that may not...

Despite portfolio construction based on expected utility theory and Markowitz mean-variance optimization having been the foundation of financial economic theory for more than 50 years, its practical application by financial advisors has been limited. Particularly troubling are the lack of a...

Political activism positively affects firm innovation. Firms that support more politicians, politicians on Congressional committees with jurisdictional authority over the firms’ industries and politicians who join those committees innovate more. The authors employ instrumental variables...

The employment situation remains a major source of concern in the majority of countries in the European Union. Half of the region’s unemployed have been without work for more than a year, and unless the policy approach changes, the prospects are for a sluggish employment recovery. The...

Government-controlled investors, including state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds, have greatly expanded their international activities in recent years. This paper describes the existing policy landscape of international investments by government-controlled investors under both...

Pension fund return s can be decomposed into different sources, including market movements, asset allo-cation policy, and active portfolio management. We use a unique database covering the asset allocations of US defined-benefit pension funds for the perio d 1990–2008, and we test the role...

China’s photovoltaic industry developed sharply, and now it is the only country whose production covers the installed. Since R&D policy and deployment policy of China’s PV industry should not increase its production, this paper focuses on impact of investment policy, regarded as subsidy, on...