Geographical and behavioral economics of political risk for foreign direct investment location

This thesis analyzes the perception gap between political risk assessments observed at the national level, and the different realities of sub-national city regions whose risk regime is not reflected by the national indicators, and its implication on foreign direct investment (FDI) location decisions. The purpose of this research is to understand how and why the national political risk assessments of countries with internal armed conflicts override the ability of regional investment promotion agencies to attract FDI into financially sound projects of high developmental value. This thesis complements the standard political risk underlying theories with geographical and behavioral economic theories, in order to propose a sub-national political-risk-assessment approach that could show the safer regions within riskier countries. It is based on the analysis of the Colombian Metallurgical Coke and Power Plant Project COLMECO, designed to be located in the Barranquilla Metropolitan Area, within the Atlantico Department, a region that has traditionally experienced no open internal armed conflict confrontation. The conclusions of this research prove and justify the sub-national risk assessment approach proposed.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Special Program of Urban and Regional Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Blanco, Alberto E. (Alberto Enrique), 1966-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Karen R. Polenske.

• Urban Studies and Planning.
• Special Program of Urban and Regional Studies.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/69880

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/69880