Economic integration and multinational investment behaviour. European and East Asian experiences

Abstract:

This work arises from the international conference ‘Location of economic activity, regional development and the global economy - European and East Asian experiences’ held in Le Havre, France during September 2001. It is organised in three parts.

Part one considers global integration and location decisions from the perspective of firms and explores the impact on their global performance. It opens with a chapter analysing the relationship between the existence in potential host countries of legislation for protecting intellectual property rights and the location choices of MNEs (multinational enterprises). Chapter three explores the French experience in locating foreign subsidiaries of French firms and the extent to which that differs from random distribution of French FDI. The French influence is also seen in the following chapter which looks at the globalisation of technology and innovative activities of multinational groups. Chapter five examines the significance of intra-firm trade with specific emphasis on that between the US parent companies and their majority-owned foreign affiliates at both the sectoral level and the country level. Japanese MNEs are the focus of chapter six, with particular reference to their taste for fragmentation of the production process over different locations and with both affiliates and other firms. Chapter seven explores the sharp decline of Japanese FDI to East Asian countries following the Asian financial crisis and its subsequent continuance at the reduced level.

Part two features chapters on foreign direct investment with particular attention given to East Asia. It opens with an analysis of the Java experience in Indonesia and is followed by a chapter on the Korean experience, a major OECD newly industrialising economy (NIE). The changing patterns of foreign direct investment in East Asia following the 1997 Asian crisis are addressed in chapter ten. The strong association between foreign direct investment and Asian regional economic development is studied in chapter eleven. The role of the state in shaping economic structures and policies with clear objectives for growth are considered in chapter twelve, specifically in the case of South Korea. Chapter thirteen examines the relationship between exchange rate related factors and FDI and the extent to which they can assist a revival of FDI inflows. Part three offers a selection of country and regional specific studies showing the relationship between international trade and investment and regional economic integration.

The work will interest scholars, students and researchers engaged in economic geography, international economics and business, European and East Asian studies, and globalisation.

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