IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unm/unumer/2013034.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Foreign direct investment as a driver of industrial development: why is there so little evidence?

Author

Listed:
  • Narula, Rajneesh

    (J.H. Dunning Centre for International Business, Henley Business School)

Abstract

This paper examines the role of FDI in promoting industrial development, and raises a rather important question: Why, if FDI is such an important avenue to promote development, is their little evidence on concomitant industrial development in most developing countries? This chapter takes a look at the evidence on FDI and development and explores some of the causes for this ambiguity. The complexities of global value chains and networks have begun to trivialize the simplistic principle that increased MNE activity automatically implies a proportional increase in spillovers and linkages. Policies towards MNEs need to be closely linked and integrated with industrial policy. MNE activity needs to be evaluated by considering the kinds of externalities that are generated; whether and how domestic actors can internalize them, and building up absorptive capacities to achieve this.

Suggested Citation

  • Narula, Rajneesh, 2013. "Foreign direct investment as a driver of industrial development: why is there so little evidence?," MERIT Working Papers 2013-034, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    • Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2013034
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/wppdf/2013/wp2013-034.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    MNEs; absorptive capabilities; motives; IDP; services; developing countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2013034. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ad Notten (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/meritnl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.