Honors Theses
Date of Award
2014
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Croft Institute for International Studies
First Advisor
Matthew DiGiuseppe
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This thesis examines the concept of transparency and its role in international investment in the developing world. Investment is essential to developing nations because of its overarching economic benefits, such as new avenues of employment, exposure to new markets and the financing of diverse development projects. The desire for increased capital from foreign investors has influenced and shaped the economic policies of developing democratic and autocratic states. One of the most recent trends in economic policy is the formulation and adoption of transparent vehicles, such as access-to-information legislation, which address perceived investor risk through certain actions, such as publishing various economic statistics about a certain market or economy. Perceived investor risk is accompanied by commitment and information problems when multinational corporations engage in investment negotiations with a developing state. While democracy is acknowledged among scholars such as Nathan Jensen to alleviate the commitment problem in negotiation, the scope of this thesis focuses on transparency and its role in addressing the information problem in the facilitation of multinational foreign direct investment. The empirical analysis shows that the degree of transparency is not contingent on the presence of democracy in a particular state and both autocratic and democratic regimes have similar advantages in the competition for investment. The results also highlight the increased dependency on transparency vehicles by autocratic regimes because the regime itself is unable to counter certain facets of the commitment problem due to the lack of democratic means of governance.
Recommended Citation
Carter, John, "Investment in the Developing World: Democracy and/or Transparency" (2014). Honors Theses. 454.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/454
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Comments
A thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for completion of the Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies from the Croft Institute for International Studies and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.