ABSTRACT
Introduction The end of the Cold War and the economic liberalization of Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and the 1990s, the birth of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, continuing improvements in information, communication, and transportation technologies, the economic rise of China, and an increasing view that hosting more foreign direct investment (FDI) was beneficial augured a period of dramatic growth in inward FDI (IFDI), albeit with notable, periodic fluctuations. Whereas annual global FDI flows were only $202 billion in 1990, they reached $331.1 billion by 1995, hit $1.27 trillion in 2000, and ran about $958.7 billion by 2005 (UNCTAD 2000, p. 6; UNCTAD 2001, pp. 2-3; UNCTAD 2008, p. 2).1 Whatever the year, the statistics make clear the vast majority of FDI flowed from developed to other developed countries.2 In tandem with FDI’s upsurge, the world’s leading multinational corporations (MNCs) became ever more massive. To illustrate, as of the end of 1998, the world’s top 25 MNCs held over $752 billion in foreign assets, sold $1 trillion abroad, and employed over 2.36 million people overseas (UNCTAD 2000, p. 2). By the end of 2005, they held $2.6 trillion in assets, made over $1.8 trillion in foreign sales, and employed over 4.23 million workers overseas (UNCTAD 2007a, p. 7).
