FIW

Dear Colleague,

We cordially invite you to the wiiw-FIW-Seminar in International Economics on

Monday, February 29^th, 4 pm

wiiw, Rahlgasse 3, 1060 Vienna, lecture hall (ground floor)

North-South Trade and Bilateral Investment Treaties

Neil Foster-McGregor (with Rod Falvey)

UNU-MERIT

Abstract

Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) have become increasingly popular as a means of encouraging FDI from developed to developing countries. We adopt a difference-in-difference analysis to deal with the problem of self-selection when estimating the effects of BITs on FDI flows from a sample of OECD countries to a broader sample of lesser developed countries. Our results indicate that forming a BIT with a developed country significantly increases FDI inflows to developing countries, with BITs found to double FDI flows in some specifications. We further find that FDI flows along the extensive margin are much more responsive to BIT formation than flows along the intensive margin.

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment, Bilateral Investment Treaties, Endogenous treatment effects

JEL Classification: C21, F21

After the seminar there will be the opportunity for the speaker and the audience for further discussions, accompanied by drinks and snacks.

This seminar series is an activity in the framework of FIW ('Forschungsschwerpunkt Internationale Wirtschaft'), which is a project designed to build a center of excellence in research on International Economics, funded by the Austrian Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (BMWFW).

The seminar programme is regularly updated. Please visit our website for the current version of the programme at:

http://wiiw.ac.at/fiw-wiiw-seminars-in-international-economics-es-6.html

http://www.fiw.ac.at/index.php?id=748

(Papers and presentation slides, as far as available, are posted on our homepage http://wiiw.ac.at/events.html after the respective seminars.)

Best regards

Julia Grübler

Organizer

Michaela Bönisch

Wiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche (wiiw)

The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies

Rahlgasse 3, A-1060 Wien

T: +43 1 533 66 10 - 40