Foreign direct investment in Russia: how the investment climate matters

Among European transition economies and the CIS, Russia is the largest country and has the most important endowment of natural resources, well-educated labour force, and large potential market. Paradoxically, Russia is one of the least attractive host countries in this region. This situation may generate a risk of economic marginalization. Our main task is to develop our understanding of FDI in Russia by asking a main question: Why is Russia an exception in the context of FDI globalization? Is Russia willing to stay outside the general trend of fierce competition for FDI and able to developed endogenously sustainable growth?     

A statistical approach to identifying poorly performing countries

This paper asks whether it is possible to identify, using purely statistical criteria on widely available quantitative data, a set of developing countries that can be classified as poor performers. We restrict attention to two performance indicators, economic growth and infant mortality, over two periods 1980–90 and 1990–2000, and use four different statistical criteria to identify poor performance. The main finding is that very few countries consistently appear as poor performers: those that perform poorly on one indicator, or in one period, typically do not perform poorly on/in the other. A similar result is obtained in the context of identifying, on statistical grounds, good performers. The research cautions against labelling countries as poor performers without careful qualification.     

Foreign direct investment and technology capabilities in the developing countries: a review

Economically developing countries are facing the very difficult problems of mastering the skills involved in newly emerging science-intensive industries. To improve technological capabilities, they must expend resources to establish themselves in industries that are technologically mature. Transfer of knowledge is the crux of the direct investment, so in this context transfer of technology (ToT) plays a vital role in the economic and technological development. So, the wide spread discussion of “economic globalization” has involved an important debate on the role of technology in “economic globalization” and economic growth. Much of that debates has concentrated of corporate behaviour within the developed countries but transfer of technology (ToT) combines the development of indiginous technological capabilities also. At the same time, organizational skills, procedure, and assumptions within the globalization of technology need to be adapted to fit the new technology in the developing countries. Thus this paper try to explain the story of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the economic growth and development of technology through technological capabilities that provides for an increasingly intense end of domestic competition. The paper also analysis and review the effect of access to technology and level of competition, on the level of technological capabilities by inference a strategy for the success acquisition of technology in developing countries.     

Foreign direct investment,financial development and economic growth

This article argues that the development of the financial system of the recipient country is an important precondition for FDI to have a positive impact on economic growth. A more developed financial system positively contributes to the process of technological diffusion associated with FDI. The article empirically investigates the role the development of the financial system plays in enhancing the positive relationship between FDI and economic growth. The empirical investigation presented in the article strongly suggests that this is the case. Of the 67 countries in data set, 37 have a sufficiently developed financial system in order to let FDI contribute positively to economic growth. Most of these countries are in Latin America and Asia.     

Self-employment in Estonia: Forced move or voluntary engagement?

This article examines the importance of ‘pull’ and ‘push’ factors in self-employment drawing upon the experience of post-socialist Estonia, where self-employment has risen sharply from a negligible level since 1989. Drawing on quantitative data, and also qualitative data, the article identifies a range of different types of self-employment in Estonia and explores the reasons for their different levels of success.     

Competing for Foreign Direct investment: Efforts to Promote Nontraditional FDI in Costa Rica, Brazil, and Chile

This article examines government efforts in Costa Rica, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and Chile to promote nontraditional foreign direct investment (FDI). Rather than attempting to account for the overall level of FDI attracted, this article seeks to explain the ability of governments to develop a well-targeted, responsive, and sustained strategy specifically to attract nontraditional FDI. It concludes that three independent variables play an important role in making some governments more effective than others at developing strategies to promote nontraditional FDI. These are the extent of the government's autonomy from special interest groups, both domestic and foreign; the extent of the government's transnational learning capacity; and the extent to which there is an ideological consensus among political parties in the country or state in favor of working closely with the business community. Roy C. Nelson is an associate professor of International Studies at Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management. He is currently completing a book entitledHarnessing Globalization: The Promotion of Nontraditional Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America.     

Transitional statistics: internal migration and urban growth in post-Soviet Estonia

Standard models and theories of internal migration and urban growth in Estonia have been developed. However, there remained a lack of statistical wherewithal to conduct the required kind of analysis. For instance, certain categories of migration are likely to have been underreported and it is clear that existing rules and regulations on how to report those moves that were registered were not always observed. This could be attributed to the fact that existing statistics may fail to account for the process they purposely capture. To illustrate, the authors report the results of a study of migration patterns in post-Soviet Estonia with a view of identifying the consequences of a change in reporting regulations and practices. To this end, a survey of individual migration histories was conducted in 1997. Overall, findings suggest that post-Soviet migration data are slightly improved in comparison with their Soviet-era predecessors: different but still deficient. It turns out that net domestic migratory flows are the reverse of what official statistics on registered residents suggest. The contrasts between the survey returns and the officially reported statistics are outlined, including resources of divergence. As the findings indicate that something is distinct from that suggested by the compilations of the Estonian Statistical Office is indeed taking place, this study provide some inputs for a more thorough understanding of how migratory flows and urbanization processes are transformed during the transition period itself.     

Crystallizing and Emancipating Identities in Post-Communist Estonia

This article concerns collective identities in the context of EU enlargement and the post-Soviet transition of Estonian society, particularly of the two main ethno-linguistic groups: ethnic Estonians and the Russian-speaking population in Estonia. The empirical basis of the study is formed by factor structures of self-identification. The data were obtained from nationally representative surveys carried out in 2002, before Estonia joined the EU, and in 2005. The thinking patterns behind the structures of self-categorization are discussed mainly on the basis of theoretical concepts of individualization and transition culture. For background information, comparative data collected in Latvia (2006) and in Sweden (2003) are used. The survey results reveal that in the post-communist transformation, EU integration and spread of global mass culture have homogenized the mental patterns of the Estonians and the Russians. It is characteristic of post-communist Estonia that both minority and majority groups have utilized trans-national and civic identity and individualistic patterns of self-identification in terms of (sub)culture and social and material achievement, extracted from social norms and existing structures. Surveys confirm that for political actors in both Estonia and Russia it is hardly possible any more to create a common umbrella identity for the Russians in Estonia—the self-designation patterns of the Estonian Russians have been emancipated during the transition period.     

Determinants of demographic change in transition Estonia

The author discusses the transformation of Estonia to a market economy, with a focus on trends in demographic development. "The transition of society in Estonia has been accompanied by significant changes in the demographic behaviour of the population, including nuptiality, fertility, mortality and population migration.... However, this period has been relatively short, and it is premature to conclude which of the current trends are long-term in nature, and which will have only a short-term effect."     

中国外交进入多边时代

2008年以来,国际政治、经济格局发生了深刻变化,而中国外交在继承的基础上进行了许多创新和调整,其中特别令人瞩目的一点是,多边外交在中国外交中的分量显著增加,其地位有了质的飞跃。