ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews and synthesizes the information from the previous chapters. We proceed from a summary of long-term trends of FDI/GDP and FDI/K, to several explanations of these patterns. The search for causes looks first at long-term cyclical models, and then investigates both economic and non-economic factors in the sending and receiving countries. The railroad sector receives special attention, and some econometric equations are estimated to answer the question of whether colonies received more investment than independent countries at the start of the century. One unexpected result from the case studies is the weak stimulus that privatization of state-owned companies appears to have given to inflows of FDI, and this also receives some brief comments. After a general summary, the chapter ends with a few speculative comments about future trends of FDI in the Third World.
