The history of global foreign direct investment (Fdi) and of the rise of multinational enterprises is, to a large extent, the history of the global oil industry. In the twentieth century, oil-producing Asia was one of the main destinations of global oil Fdi flows and in the early twenty-first...

This paper describes the privatization program in Italy during the 1990s and puts that policy in the context of macroeconomic adjustment, general market deregulation, and promotion of private investment in the provision of public infrastructure. The wave of state divestitures reached Italy later...

The emergence of a "second wave" of developing-country multinational enterprises (MNEs) in a variety of industries is one of the characterizing features of globalization. This paper documents how emerging markets' MNEs (EM-MNEs) may follow quite different patterns to reach, or at least approach,...

A variety of Proposals for creating more competition within the railroad sector and in the broader freight transport sector are under consideration in countries throughout the world. Brazil, though something of a latecomer to wider infrastructure reform, has recently taken large steps in...

In this paper, the focus is China's efforts to build a world-class aircraft manufacturing industry. In the first half of the 1990s, the potential of the Chinese industry to mount a competitive challenge to Western aircraft builders was largely discounted. Nowadays, as China strives to bear the...

While Italy's catch-up in the course of the 20th century has been nothing short of extraordinary, it has failed to produce a large number of global business players. Nonetheless, half a century ago an Italian company concluded what was at the time the largest-ever foreign takeover of a US...