ISBN: 0262611996 9780262611992

Category: Business & Economics / Development / General

Page count: 288

<p>Charles P. Kindleberger is widely regarded as among the most accessible andintelligent practitioners of the economist's craft. This collection of his papers and lectures,articles and reviews, prepared over the past decade, focuses on the role of multinationalcorporations in the international economy, their relationships with home and host countries (bothdeveloped and less developed), the determinants of their size, the impetus to their investmentbehavior, their history, the literature about them, and their regulation.Chapters relate thephenomenon of the multinational corporation to the body of economic theory. They discussmultinational corporations in world affairs, size of firm and size of nation, the clash of economicsand sociology and politics in the internationalization of business, restrictions on directinvestment in host countries, direct investment in less developed countries and in militantdeveloping nations, ownership and contract in international business, and multinationals and thesmall open economy.The origins of United States direct investment in France, and international banksand international business are taken up, followed by Kindleberger's reviews of major books on themultinational corporation and including his criticisms of such popular writing as Barnet andMoller's Global Reach, and Magdoff's Age of Imperialism.Kindleberger's policy statements beforevarious national and international governments, in which he proposes the creation of a looseframework among national authorities to harmonize policies toward the multinational corporation arealso included.Charles P. Kindleberger is Ford International Professor of Economics Emeritus, MIT andVisiting Professor, Brandeis University.</p>