Foreign direct investment and development : launching a second generation of policy research : avoiding the mistakes of the first, reevaluating policies for developed and developing countries /

Moran (Georgetown Univ.) has published prolifically on foreign direct investment (FDI) since 1972. This concise volume is a magisterial survey of research over the last 50 years, with emphasis on the last 20, and includes the author's interpretation of its implications for future research and policy. His major point, with which few would disagree, is that FDI in different sectors is different in its motivations, determinants, effects, and the implications for both recipient countries and countries of origin. More controversial is Moran's conviction that some of the lingering conventional wisdom about FDI, particularly in manufacturing, is contradicted by a mass of evidence and is plain wrong. His strongest objection is perhaps to performance requirements (e.g., joint ventures, local content requirements, and technology transfer) for foreign firms, which he believes have been and are counterproductive, even in China. Service industries get short shrift, but otherwise the book is impressively comprehensive and covers most issues, fully acknowledging that, in all sectors, whether FDI helps or hurts is largely determined by host country policy environments. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduate students and above. J. H. Cobbe Florida State University