Less-Developed Countries and Private Foreign Investment

Less-Developed Countries and Private Foreign Investment THIS paper is partly a review of an important new work by G L Reuber and associates on the economics of private foreign manufacturing investment in less-developed countries (LDCs),1 and partly an attempt to examine some of the larger issues facing the study of such investment. Reuber's book is an interesting and provocative one, and in this essay I shall concentrate on the first 250 pages which contain the analytical sections, and which constitute a vigorous defence of foreign investment in LDCs. The book also contains 5 appendices on its structure and distribution, the characteristics of selected projects, the interview procedure and the sources and definitions of the data. The analysis is based on published and unpublished information as well as on direct interviews with about 80 investing firms, and claims to be a major contribution to our knowledge in this field.