The paper assesses the importance of openness, infrastructure availability, and sound economic and political conditions in increasing developing countries' attractiveness with respect to FDI. The results show that these factors are particularly important for South Asia, Africa, and the Middle...

This paper addresses the issue of the low level of private investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with special emphasis on the role of governance. Based on the existing literature, the authors categorize what types of governance institutions are more detrimental to...

During the 1980s and the 1990s, private investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has on average shown a decreasing or stagnant trend. This contrasts with the situation of the Asian economies, where private investment has always been more dynamic. In this article, it is empirically...

Drawing on the World Bank Investment Climate Assessment surveys, this paper investigates the relationship between firm-level technical efficiency and the investment climate for 22 developing economies and eight manufacturing industries. The authors first propose three measures of firms'...

Drawing on the World Bank Investment Climate Assessment surveys, this paper investigates the relationship between firm-level technical efficiency and the investment climate for 22 developing economies and eight manufacturing industries. The authors first propose three measures of firms'...

This paper addresses the issue of the low level of private investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with special emphasis on the role of governance. Based on the existing literature, the authors categorize what types of governance institutions are more detrimental to...

The aim of this review is to provide a preliminary assessment of the implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) in order to highlight the directions that might take the next stage of reform. A particular focus is made on the Quads countries. Our findings are that, in...

In this article, we present an overview of the theoretical and empirical literature on infrastructures and growth. We review the different approaches of this link, starting from the earlier themes of the Big Push and of exogenous growth, to the recent renewal of growth theories and of spatial...

In this paper we empirically analyze the linkages among economic reforms, human capital, physical infrastructure, and growth for a panel of 44 developing countries over 1970-80 to 1999. For this purpose, we generate aggregated reform indicators using principal component analysis. We show that...

Despite some progress in economic policy – in macroeconomic stability in the 1980s, and in structural reforms in the 1990s – the MENA countries have failed to attract foreign direct investments (FDI). This may be due to several factors. In this paper we empirically verify from a panel of 72...