Discussions Macroeconomics

Foreign Direct Investment

Imagine you are in charge of development for a developing country and were approached by a multinational corporation interested in locating in your country.

Identify some of the benefits and some of the costs to the host country from allowing a multinational corporation to locate in a country with a developing economy. Discuss with your classmates if developmental assistance from world developmental agencies, such as the World Bank or the United Nations, would be preferable to private investment.

Reference: Chapter 17, section 17.5: Help From The Private Sector: Multinationals.

Guided Response: Review several of your classmates' posts and respond to at least two of them. In your reply, discuss how the concerns listed in their posts regarding private foreign investment could be alleviated through aide from world development agencies.

Carefully review the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate this Discussion Thread.

Economies in Transition

The movement in the direction of a market-based system with freely determined prices, competition, profits, private ownership, and other features of capitalism is not simple. Discuss some of the challenges associated with an economy transitioning from socialism to capitalism.

Reference: Chapter 20, section 20.1: World Economic Systems, and section 20.2: Transition to a Market System.

Guided Response: Review several of your classmates' posts. Respond to at least two of your peers by discussing the benefits and the costs of privatization of an economy. Pose questions that may assist your peers in extending their thinking.