In 2000 foreign direct investment (FDI) broke through the trillion-dollar level and its annual growth rate over the last decade has exceeded the growth of both international trade in goods and services and output. This rapid growth has led to wide ranging policy changes at national and international level. In the 1960s and 1970s FDI, and indeed multinational corporations in general were viewed with heightened levels of suspicion by governments in developing countries. Today those same governments seem to fall over one another in attempts to attract FDI. Foreign Direct Investment examines the different approaches to explaining the growth and distribution of FDI in the world. Pulling together contributions from an array of international experts, this study combines theoretical with empirical work on issues such as computable general equilibrium modelling, trade, intellectual property, environment, labour, services and development. By analysing different aspects of the growth and impact of FDI the book is able to balance areas where research is well advanced with areas, such as the role of FDI in development, where many questions remain. This insightful and important text will be useful to students of development economics as well as policy makers and researchers.