Why Has Foreign Direct Investment (Fdi) Increased

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Why has foreign direct investment (FDI) increased in recent decades? Foreign direct investment (FDI) is refers to the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor. It is the sum of equity capital, reinvestment of earnings, other long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown in the balance of payments. It usually involves participation in management, joint-venture, transfer of technology and expertise. Also, it is an integral part of an open and effective international economic system and a major catalyst to development. In recent decades, however, foreign direct investment has increased and influenced on developing and developed countries. The reason why this situation happened is the result of effect of spillover, developing countries removed restrictions, the national polices also help with shaping FDI frameworks and FDI has potential to bring social and environmental benefits to host economies. The following essay will analysis the reasons above. The main effect of FDI is called spillover effect which can be separated into two parts, productivity spillovers and market access spillovers. In particular, they can be further categorized into vertical and horizontal spillovers. Horizontal spillover is an intra-industry policy which consists of a company’s internal operation and it involves multinational corporations (MNCs) which will only appear in the most technologically advanced firms. Besides, MNCs mainly accounts for an overall participation of the world’s investment in research and development. (Caves 1974) According to researchers’ findings, there are doubts on the intensity which may not provide any competitive advantages. Therefore, companies may aim to limit horizontal spillovers in order to compete with the domestic firms among the market. On the other
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