Transnational Corporations, Economic Development, and Human Rights: On the Importance of FDI Composition and Host Country Assets

The main objective of this work is to examine how the free markets¿ superior agent, the transnational corporation (TNC) affects economic development and human rights¿ conditions in the developing world. The book expands on an emerging tradition that highlights the importance of context and conditionality, and argues that the effects of TNC activity in developing countries are dependent upon both TNC and host country characteristics. By combining statistical methods, fuzzy-set methods, and comparative case studies, the book finds that foreign direct investments (FDI) can help generate economic growth (a growth that will increase the country¿s economic standing over the long run), and this potentially positive influence on the level of economic development can again have a positive influence on a host country¿s level of human rights. This conditionality manifest itself in the policy implications: FDI in the secondary and tertiary sectors should be encouraged insofar as the context is benign. That is, insofar as a host country is characterised by high rates of domestic investments, high institutional quality, and high levels of human capital.

Bjørn Letnes has a PhD in political science and a MSc in petroleum engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He has 10 years of experience from the Norwegian offshore industry and is currently working as a Senior Research Scientist at Northern Europe¿s largest independent research institute: SINTEF.