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Investment promotion agencies (IPAs) exist in almost all countries around the world, but there has been no global attempt to determine whether they have been able to significantly influence the investor’s decision to locate in one country rather than another. The Effectiveness of Promotion Agencies at Attracting Foreign Direct Investment is the first empirical study of the effectiveness of these agencies in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). This study finds that promotion is unambiguously associated with greater FDI flows. The effectiveness of promotion, however, depends on:the quality of the investment climate, market size the level of development of the country the IPA’s budget and type of activities it carries outcommunication with the highest level of policymakers and support from the private sector.An important resource, The Effectiveness of Promotion Agencies at Attracting Foreign Direct Investment provides many lessons about how to carry out effective investment promotion.

The book contains complementary essays on the use of tax incentives, to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). The first essay presents results of the authors ' original research, and explores FDI, and issues of tax incentives, in the context of Indonesia. Their results mostly support the arguments made against incentives, particularly they find little evidence that when Indonesia eliminated tax incentives, there was any decline in the rate of FDI into the country. Similarly, the second essay surveys the research of others on the same topic, and pertaining to the same issues discussed in the first essay. They show that results of other researchers, are generally consistent with the findings of the research in Indonesia, notably that tax incentives, neither affect significantly the amount of direct investment that takes place, nor usually determine the location to which investment is drawn. Nevertheless, recent evidence has shown that when factors such as political, and economic stability, infrastructure, and transport costs are more, or less equal between potential locations, taxes may exert a significant impact. This is evidenced by the growing tax competition in regional groupings (i.e., the European Union) or, at the sub-regional level within one country (i.e., the United States). Both essays provide a basis for much more sophisticated analysis by policymakers than previously, and, both are important because they question governments ' institutional arrangements that create agency problems with respect to tax incentive policies.

The early literature on international trade has debated extensively the constraints facing exporting countries in the major commodity markets. This article goes one step further by suggesting that the final demand for these products could not have increased because the declines in world commodity prices were not transmitted or were transmitted imperfectly to domestic consumer prices. In contrast, upward movements in world prices were clearly passed on to domestic prices. As a result, the spread between world and domestic prices almost doubled in all major commodity markets during 1975–94. This asymmetry, seldom discussed in the literature, does not seem to be caused, at least systematically, by changes in trade and tax policies or factors such as transport, processing, and marketing costs. This article argues, therefore, that a special effort should be made to better understand the transmission from world to domestic prices, especially the role of large international trading companies that may have the capability to influence such spreads through one or several stages of processing in most major commodity markets.

[...]Vietnam should focus less on increasing production outputs but more on the optimal allocation of financial and human resources to the most dynamic firms. [...]the government should shift from encouraging access to basic infrastructure services to incentivizing responsible behaviors. Vietnam’s ambition is becoming a high-income economy by 2045, and if the country starts adapting its development strategy toward higher efficiency, it will continue to play well and win more titles in the world of economic development.

Let us start by demonstrating that, even if you are skeptical about the climate benefits of reducing carbon emissions, a just energy transition would be economically justified for South Africa; in fact, by 2030, it is likely to yield economic gains at least double the above projected costs, as shown in Figure 1. Source: World Bank’s calculations Most of these gains would come as the country shifts away from coal toward low-carbon energy sources (mainly renewables), already the least costly option for South Africa due to its aging and unreliable coal power plants. Given the age and condition of the existing coal-fired power plants, renewables are the least-cost option to expand the generation sector. 2.

Most Ivorians are reluctant to use local banks, even if are safer and more profitable. Jacques Morisset discusses why not, and how to increase trust between savers and banks for the Ivory Coast's banking sector to grow.

Jacques Morisset explains why petty corruption, especially relating to import duties, thrives in countries with low levels of governance in which individuals have low bargaining power.