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The role of industry-level research-and-development and firm-level productivity for multinational enterprises' (MNEs') choice of making foreign direct investment (FDI) is explored. A decision process is accounted for through firm-specific datasets on German MNEs with differing equity stakes in Indian affiliates. How German firm decisions were influenced by Indian FDI liberalization is examined.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has led to employment generation in the non-maquiladora manufacturing sector of Mexico in both white- and blue-collared jobs. Details on the impact of FDI on the employment in export-oriented and capital-intensive markets are discussed.

It is widely believed that foreign aid may help conflict-affected countries to recover after the termination of conflicts. However, the available empirical evidence supporting this view largely neglects the heterogeneous nature of aid. Drawing on the conflict database of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, we address the hypothesis that the effectiveness of post-conflict aid differs between specific sectors. Our focus is on social and economic infrastructure which is most likely to suffer during conflict episodes so that the need for aid is particularly pressing in this area. We find fairly robust evidence that post-conflict aid is effective in improving social infrastructure. In contrast, aid appears to be ineffective in improving economic infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies offer an ambiguous picture on the effectiveness of foreign aid in strengthening the export capacity of recipient countries. Moreover, the literature on aid for trade (AfT) has often neglected the fact that exporters in the donor countries may be among the main beneficiaries. We simultaneously estimate and compare the effects of AfT on trade in both directions. We find that AfT increases recipient exports to donors as well as recipient imports from donors. The first effect tends to dominate the latter, which contradicts the sceptical view that donors grant AfT primarily to promote their own export interests. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We assess the determinants of private donations across a large sample of US based NGOs with foreign aid activities. Our results show that donations do not depend in the expected way on publicly available information on NGO characteristics that reveal an efficient and targeted use of funds, notably the efficiency price of NGO aid and the degree of specialisation. Private donors rather rely on the frequently offered option to designate donations to preferred purposes – even though this is unlikely to tie the NGOs' hands. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]