It is nowadays well accepted that both economic growth and development are highly dependent on improving not just the availability of capital, but also access to technological capabilities, infrastructure and resources. This has gone hand-in-hand with an increasing economic liberalization of most developing countries. The role of the MNE as a viable source of both capital and technology is one of the key features of this new openness. In the process of embracing FDI as a solution to the myriad of economic ills - something even the World Bank has begun to do - little attempt is made to understand the rationale and the costs associated with this policy stance. Simply put, FDI is not a condition sine qua non for development. Too much emphasis has been placed on attracting FDI, and not on understanding how to optimise the benefits for the host economy. This volume aims to encourage and promote research related to these issues. This volume was previously published as a special issue of the European Journal of Development Research.

Foreign Direct Investment and its Role in Economic Development: Do We Need a New Agenda?; Learning, Upgrading, and Innovation in the South African Automotive Industry; Targeting Winners: Can Foreign Direct Investment Policy Help Developing Countries Industrialise?; Using Foreign Investment Strategically for Innovation; Foreign Direct Investment, Linkage Formation and Supplier Development in Thailand during the 1990s: The Role of State Governance; Exports and Technological Capabilities: A Study of Foreign and Local Firms in the Electronics Industry in Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand; Foreign Direct Investment: A Catalyst for Local Firm Development?; Where Do Foreign Direct Investment-Related Technology Spillovers Come From in Emerging Economies? An Exploration in Argentina in the 1990s; Regulation of Foreign Investment in Historical Perspective; Will a Trade and Investment Link in the Global Trade Regime Be Good for Human Development?