Overview

This volume surveys current views in the debate about the impact of foreign direct investment on Third World development--on growth, employment, exports, technology, and distribution of income.

Trade and Employment

It examines whether the efforts of less developed countries to attract and control multinational corporations have constituted a serious "distortion" of trade that threatens jobs in the home nations.

Studies and Environmental Concerns

It provides new studies of foreign investment in agriculture and in the least developed states. It looks at the threat of transmitting environmental pollution.

International Collaboration and Financial Gaps

And it analyzes the link between international companies and the "umbrella" of World Bank cofinancing as a mechanism to reduce risk. Finally, it attempts to estimate how much of the "gap" in commercial bank lending might plausibly be filled by direct corporate investment over the next decade.