Both policy makers and policy analysts are interested in the extent to which host country policies influences foreign direct investment (FDI). While much work has focused on the impact of government policies on aggregate FDI, little attention has been paid to the possibility that different types of FDI may respond differently to changes in policies. In this dissertation, I investigate whether local policies affect distinct types of FDI in different ways. In addition, I also study whether the FDI undertaken by multinational enterprises (MNEs) generates spillovers to their home countries. In the first chapter, I test the effect of environmental policies in host countries on horizontal, vertical and export-platform FDI. In a simple model I show how different types of FDI respond to a stricter environmental policy. Using U.S. outward FDI in 50 host countries and a survey measure of local environmental regulations, I find a significant deterrent effect of environmental regulations on horizontal and export-platform FDI. Furthermore, I find that in host countries with stricter environmental regulations than U.S. regulations, export-platform FDI exhibits a greater sensitivity to local environmental regulations than horizontal FDI. I extend the analysis in the first chapter to the effect of local corporate tax rates in the second chapter. The empirical evidence suggests that the effect of statutory corporate income tax rates is negative and significant on vertical and export-platform FDI but insignificant on horizontal FDI. The tax effect is found to have grown stronger over time. More importantly, I find that different types of FDI respond in distinct ways to variation in tax rates across "third" countries | all other countries beside the actual host country of FDI. In the third chapter, I investigate the spillovers generated by MNEs when they invest abroad to domestic firms using rm level information from Standard and Poor's Compustat data. Similar to most previous studies on host country spillovers, only spillovers from MNEs to their suppliers are found to be significant. Moreover, the realization of positive spillovers depends on a few rm characteristics, including exporting status, size and absorptive capacity.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Economics
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_4909
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
ix, 144 p. : ill.
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Jitao Tang
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Investments, Foreign
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
International business enterprises
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
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Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.