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The Effectiveness of Promotion Agencies at Attracting Foreign Direct Investment

Author

Listed:
  • Jacques Morisset
  • Kelly Andrews-Johnson
Abstract
A perplexing question has become increasingly important: Does investment promotion really work? The authors hereby made a major step in providing a convincing answer to this question. Because many countries were not yet trying to promote investment, the authors could conduct a very simple test: compare foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into countries that had promotion activities in the United States, with the flows into countries that didn't. The study provided some crude support for the idea that promotion worked and, with some assumptions, the costs of attracting an investor, or its trade-off seemed to favor promotion. But more recent data from this survey provided the authors a more sophisticated methodology; as a result, their study is more convincing, and addresses many more questions than earlier work. They find the median expenditure on investment by developing countries to be smaller than expected. However, the study shows that expenditures below a certain annual level yield few, if any returns. Where the investment climate is bad, efforts to improve policy seem sensible; but in fact, in countries with very poor investment climates, returns to expenditures on other promotion activities are likely to be especially low. Similarly, it is likely that promotion has more impact on certain kinds of investors than on others. The research stipulates important factors about organizational issues, and, results show that agencies with some kind of participation from the private sector, do better than those that are purely governmental. It also provides evidence to suggest that, at least for many countries, a dollar spent on investment promotion yields a better return than a dollar provided as a subsidy or given up through a tax incentive program.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacques Morisset & Kelly Andrews-Johnson, 2004. "The Effectiveness of Promotion Agencies at Attracting Foreign Direct Investment," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15073.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbpubs:15073
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    File URL: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/15073/271500PAPER0Ef1f0promotion0agencies.pdf?sequence=1
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Crescenzi, Riccardo & Di Cataldo, Marco & Giua, Mara, 2021. "FDI inflows in Europe: Does investment promotion work?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Bin Ni & Yasuyuki Todo & Tomohiko Inui, 2017. "How Effective are Investment Promotion Agencies? Evidence from China," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 68(2), pages 232-243, June.
    3. Laura Alfaro & Andrew Charlton, 2007. "Growth and the Quality of Foreign Direct Investment: Is All FDI Equal?," CEP Discussion Papers dp0830, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Harding, Torfinn & Javorcik, Beata Smarzynska, 2007. "Developing economies and international investors : do investment promotion agencies bring them together ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4339, The World Bank.
    5. Frank Barry, 2006. "Foreign direct investment and institutional co-evolution in Ireland," Working Papers 200603, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    6. Alaya MAROUANE & Dalila NICET-CHENAF & Eric ROUGIER, 2008. "The law of growth and attraction: an endogenous model of absorptive capacities, FDI and income for MENA countries," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2008-27, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    7. Thierry Madiès & Jean-Jacques Dethier, 2012. "Fiscal Competition In Developing Countries: A Survey Of The Theoretical And Empirical Literature," Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (JICEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(02), pages 1-31.
    8. Rick T. Wilson, 2018. "Transforming history into heritage: applying corporate heritage to the marketing of places," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(4), pages 351-369, July.
    9. Echandi,Roberto & Sauve,Pierre, 2020. "Investment Facilitation and Mode 3 Trade in Services : Are Current Discussions Addressing the Key Issues ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9229, The World Bank.
    10. John Schoeneman & Jami Fullerton, 2023. "Exploring relationships between nation branding and foreign direct investment," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(3), pages 266-279, September.
    11. Elena Poliakova & Liesl Riddle & Michael E. Cummings, 2020. "Diaspora investment promotion via public–private partnerships: Case-study insights and IB research implications from the Succeed in Ireland initiative," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(1), pages 23-37, March.
    12. Bin Ni, 2013. "Are Investment Promotion Agencies Doing the Thing Right? Evidence from China," OSIPP Discussion Paper 13E004Rev., Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University, revised Jan 2015.
    13. Ivan JILETA, 2016. "pERFORMANCE AND COMPETITIVENESS OF LATIN AMERICAN CITIES: THE PHYSICAL CAPITAL CASE," Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 11(3), pages 5-17, August.
    14. World Bank Group, 2020. "Global Investment Competitiveness Report 2019/2020," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 33808.
    15. Dalila NICET- CHENAF (GREThA-GRES) & Eric ROUGIER (GREThA-GRES), 2008. "Recent exports matter: export discoveries, FDI and Growth, an empirical assessment for MENA countries," Cahiers du GRES (2002-2009) 2008-17, Groupement de Recherches Economiques et Sociales.
    16. de Jong, Gjalt & Phan, T. Binh & van Ees, Hans, 2011. "Does the meta-environment determine firm performance? Theory and evidence from European multinational enterprises," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 454-465, August.

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