Dear Colleague, We cordially invite you to the wiiw-FIW-Seminar in International Economics on Monday, February 29th, 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 F: +43 1 533 66 10 - 50 boenisch@wiiw.ac.at http://www.wiiw.ac.at/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you do not want to receive further mailings please send an e-mail to boenisch@wiiw.ac.at Falls Sie keine weiteren Zusendungen des wiiw wünschen senden Sie bitte ein E-Mail an boenisch@wiiw.ac.at