Three Waves of BITs

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 1047-1073 ◽  
Author(s):  
Srividya Jandhyala ◽  
Witold J. Henisz ◽  
Edward D. Mansfield

Bilateral investment treaties (BITs), agreements that provide extensive rights and protection to foreign investors, were first adopted in the 1960s, proliferated in the late 1980s and 1990s, especially among developing countries, and seemingly fell out of fashion after 2001. To explain this life cycle of diffusion across the international state system, we argue that BIT signing followed a traditional logic of diffusion for an innovation albeit here in the policy realm. In the first period, BITs provided a solution to the time inconsistency problem facing host governments and foreign investors. In the second period, these treaties became the global standard governing foreign investment. As the density of BITs among peer countries increased, more countries signed them in order to gain legitimacy and acceptance without a full understanding of their costs and competencies. More recently, as the potential legal liabilities involved in BIT signing have become more broadly understood, the pattern of adoption has reverted to a more competitive and rational logic. Our empirical tests of BIT signing over four decades provide evidence for such a three-stage model.

1975 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie L. Rood

The multi-national corporations see in the developing countries of black Africa a potentially large market where they would like to have a foothold. The host governments, while welcoming foreign investment, are concerned about outside exploitation. The tension between this quest for markets and the move for greater control by Africans is but one more version of the old love-hate relationship between foreign investors and underdeveloped countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-266
Author(s):  
Nandang Sutrisno ◽  
Sigar Aji Poerana

This article discusses two reasearch questions, firstly, whether law reforms on investment by the issuance of policy packages involving massive numbers of regulations during the First Period of President Jokowi have been successful to increase the realization of foreign investments? Secondly, how is the projection of foreign investment policies in the Second Period Of President Joko Widodo to increase the realization of foreign investments? Theoretical framework used in this article methodologically places law as external environment for foreign investors, and that law is the priority factor and the most relevant for investment and economic growth. This article concludes that first, law reforms on investments by the issuance of massive regulations in the First Period, even though having been successful to increase the values of realization of cumulative foreign investments significantly, they have been unsuccessful in increasing the annual percentages of foreign investment growth. Second, Omnibus Law and the then implementing regulations that would be used to increase foreign investments have been inviting resistances from various components of the nation, due to lack of transparent procedures and degrading the interests of public at large, and bias of the intersets of investors. Therefore, the effectiveness of law reforms in the Second Period would be impeded by various resistant movements, and in turn, be contraproductive with the purposes of legal reforms. Abstrak Artikel ini membahas dua permasalahan utama, pertama apakah reformasi hukum investasi melalui serangkaian paket kebijakan dengan jumlah peraturan yang masif pada Periode Pertama Presiden Jokowi telah berhasil meningkatkan realisasi investasi asing? Kedua, bagaimanakah proyeksi kebijakan investasi asing pada Periode Kedua Presiden Jokowi untuk meningkatkan realisasi investasi asing? Kerangka teoretik yang digunakan dalam artikel ini secara metodologis menempatkan hukum sebagai lingkungan eksternal dari investasi asing, bahwa hukum merupakan faktor prioritas dan paling relevan untuk investasi dan pertumbuhan ekonomi. Kesimpulan dari artikel ini pertama, reformasi hukum investasi dengan mengeluarkan produk hukum yang masif pada Periode Pertama meskipun berhasil meningkatkan nilai investasi asing kumulatif secara signifikan, tetapi tidak berhasil meningkatkan persentase pertumbuhan pertahunnya. Kedua, Omnibus Law dan peraturan-peraturan pelaksanaanya yang akan diandalkan untuk meningkatkan investasi asing telah mengundang resistensi dari berbagai komponen bangsa, karena secara prosedur pembentukannya tidak transparan dan secara substantif mendegradasi kepentingan masyarakat luas serta lebih berpihak kepada kepentingan para investor. Dengan demikian efektivitas reformasi hukum pada Periode Kedua akan terganggu dengan berbagai gerakan resistensi yang akan menyebabkan kontraproduktif dengan tujuan dari reformasi hukum tersebut.


1989 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-204
Author(s):  
C. N. Ngwasiri

There is no doubt that the investment climate in every country is conditioned to a great extent by non-legal factors. Nevertheless, many developing countries have, to varying degrees, relied on legislation as a means of attracting foreign investment. When Cameroon attained independence in 1960, it enacted an Investment Code that same year with the aim of attracting investment which the young state needed so much for the realisation of its development objectives. When after two decades the said Code no longer responded to the needs of the state, a new one was instituted on 4 July, 1984. The common feature of Investment Codes is that they contain various incentives aimed at channelling investments to areas which the authors regard as top priority. In this article, an attempt will be made to show to what extent the Cameroonian government has succeeded in its effort to direct investments to desired regions of the country through a statute wherein incentives cohabit with regulations on matters such as imports, exports, price fixing, foreign exchange, etc., which foreign investors consider as repellent. The study is subdivided into two parts. The first part is based on the Investment Codes and the second deals with the country's regulatory environment.


2002 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-150
Author(s):  
Daniel Yan ◽  
Malcolm Warner

This article argues that sino-foreign joint ventures (SFJVs) and wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOEs) have been influenced by a number of ongoing changes, for example, government policy toward foreign investment, indigenous management practices, human resource management practices and the nature of investment. In its overview of the longitudinal changes in these four areas, it suggests that foreign investors do not necessarily make an either WFOE or SFJV decision when considering their desirable mode of operation in China. Meanwhile, it argues that multinational corporations should take a dynamic approach to constantly re-position themselves as SFJVs in their business plans with respect to the mentioned areas, so as to achieve the best result as China enters the WTO. Finally, this analysis sets out a preliminary ‘Dynamic Positioning Model’ of these two modes of operation in China, which serves as a foundation on which further hypotheses can be built.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002200942097476
Author(s):  
Marie Huber

Tourism is today considered as a crucial employment sector in many developing countries. In the growing field of historical tourism research, however, the relationships between tourism and development, and the role of international organizations, above all the UN, have been given little attention to date. My paper will illuminate how during the 1960s tourism first became the subject of UN policies and a praised solution for developing countries. Examples from expert consultancy missions in developing countries such as Ethiopia, India and Nepal will be contextualized within the more general debates and programme activities for heritage conservation and also the first UN development decade. Drawing on sources from the archives of UNESCO, as well as tourism promotion material, it will be possible to understand how tourism sectors in many so-called developing countries were shaped considerably by this international cooperation. Like in other areas of development aid, activities in tourism were grounded in scientific studies and based on statistical data and analysis by international experts. Examining this knowledge production is a telling exercise in understanding development histories colonial legacies under the umbrella of the UN during the 1960s and 1970s.


2021 ◽  
pp. 83-89
Author(s):  
Abeer Ali Khan

As the high demand of energy of the developing countries is met by importing energy and different energy technology, it has become increasingly necessary to discuss the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of those technologies and make better decisions. Developed in the late 1960s, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become a wide-ranging tool used to determine impacts of products or systems over several environmental and resource issues. The LCA approach has become more prevalent in research, industry and policy with growing concern for the environment. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to introduce the use of LCA in the decision-making process while selecting an energy technology. In this way, more environmentally conscious decisions will be made as LCAs can provide a better basis for this process.


2014 ◽  
Vol 66 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 231-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Antevski ◽  
Sanja Filipovic

Chinese investments abroad have recorded high growth rates in the last decade, but its scope is still small in comparison to those of developed industrial countries. The state plays a key role in its encouragement and support directly and indirectly. Large state corporations are the biggest investors abroad, somewhere investments of Chinese private companies dominate, e.g. in Africa. There is a great geographic dispersion of investment flows, while the highest concentration is in developing countries. The main drivers of investment capital are trade, energy sources, natural resources, infrastructure projects and acquisition of strategic assets. These drivers are often are combined from two or more ones which are mutually supportive.


Author(s):  
Halil Bajrami ◽  
Bashkim Bellaqa

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has a special and specific importance for the Republic of Kosovo taking into account the conditions and economic development, which in turn impact the economic development and social improvement of the country. For the state to have a greater absorption of FDI, significant improvement should be made in improving the management capacity in order to create a motivating environment for foreign investment, which is related to the improvement of macro-factors and microfactors at the country level in order to make the environment as attractive as possible for FDI. The purpose of this paper is to present the trend of FDI, the trend of export with a keen eye on Kosovo and to present the correlation of FDI with export. Firstly, at the beginning of this paper, a theoretical review of the literature on definitions of FDI in economic terms and definitions of export is presented. Secondly, the trend and comparison of FDI and exports over the years is presented. Thirdly, FDI trends in Kosovo were analyzed by the country of origin of these investments, etc. Fourthly, in the context of this paper, an analysis in terms of investment management at the country level in order to create an attractive investment environment was made. Fifthly, as part of this paper, empirical analyzes showing the correlations between FDI and Export in the Kosovo case have been made. FDI trends in Kosovo have been decreasing over the years, which must be improved by creating a motivating environment for both domestic and foreign investors. 


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