New Voices in Investment : A Survey of Investors from Emerging Countries

Gomez-Mera, Laura ; Kenyon, Thomas ; Margalit, Yotam ; Reis, Jose Guilherme ; Varela, Gonzalo

Washington, DC:World Bank

关键词: ACCESS TO FOREIGN MARKETS;    ACCESS TO INFORMATION;    ACCOUNTING;    ADVANCED ECONOMIES;    ARBITRATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-1-4648-0371-0
RP-ID  :  92869

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

One out of every three dollars investedabroad in 2012 was originated in multinationals fromdeveloping countries. This study sheds light on thecharacteristics, motivations, strategies, and needs ofemerging market investors. By including information oninvestors, potential investors, and non-investors, the studyidentifies differentiating factors among them that areassociated with investment decisions. Results show thatemerging market investors are active players ininternational trade markets; they operate predominantly inmanufacturing, and are publicly listed and larger thannon-investors. They exhibit a strong regional bias: theyinvest more heavily in neighbors and in other countries intheir own regions. Outward FDI from emerging markets isprimarily market-seeking. Expanding regional and hostmarkets emerged as the most important factor influencing thelocation of investments. However, emerging markets'firms face binding costs of investing in distant, culturallydissimilar markets, resulting, in practice in a trade-offbetween market size and market familiarity. Transactioncosts associated with geographical and cultural differenceshave a greater impact on services sector firms that exhibita stronger regional bias. Bilateral investment treaties(BITs) partly offset these costs associated with investingin faraway and/or unfamiliar markets. In addition,international trade agreements increase the perceivedattractiveness of a host country to potential investors.Political factors constitute binding constraints that deteremerging markets' firms from investing in developingmarkets. Yet, investors value political stability andtransparency more than corruption control, fair and regularelections, and risk of expropriation in the host country.IPAs play only a marginal role in raising awareness ofinvestment opportunities in developing countries, and may beparticularly ineffective in many African countries.Nevertheless, IPAs appear to be a widely used and usefulresource for investors once they have made the decision toenter a specific market. IPA services tend to be morevaluable for smaller and less productive firms. Overall, thenew TNCs from emerging economies do not appear to differdramatically from their predecessors from developed anddeveloping countries in previous waves of OFDI. Resultssuggest that to attract FDI from emerging economies,countries need to maintain market-friendly, liberal tradeand investment policies. In addition, joining internationaltrade and investment agreements can be benefitial to reducetransaction costs associated with cross border investment.Countries also need to provide a stable and predictablepolitical and institutional environment. Last and not least,it is important to revamp IPAs and increase theireffectiveness in raising awareness of investmentopportunities and meeting investors' needs.