Patrick J. W. Egan

My research addresses a number of topics within the subfield of international political economy. I have mostly done work on foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries, asking questions about the policy and institutional determinants of incoming investment. I am interested in both the quantity and quality of FDI, and how host country initiatives affect the operations of multinational corporations. In the past, I have published work on multinational influence over host country policy and I have considered the relationship between labor rights violations and investment risk. My FDI research involves both large-n econometric analysis of investment patterns and case studies of investment policy in diverse economies in Latin America and on the periphery of Europe.

Beyond FDI, I also have ongoing projects on the political determinants of exchange rate regimes. I have future research agendas involving historical interpretations of late 19th century monetary politics in the United States.

Book

Globalizing Innovation: State Institutions and Foreign Direct Investment in Emerging Economies. MIT Press, 2017

This book examines the relationship between political institutions in emerging economies and inflows of innovation-intensive foreign direct investment. Foreign investment is now an essential ingredient in developing countries' growth strategies. Most analyses of FDI in developing countries treat FDI flows and stocks as uniform. However, not all FDI is created equal. Different sectors and firm activities vary widely in their ability to contribute to development processes. Multinational corporations increasingly locate R&D facilities in developing countries, and competition for innovative FDI is intense. As multinationals seek out global talent and develop ever more complex production chains, developing country governments increasingly seek to attract innovation-intensive forms of investment. What determines whether countries will succeed?

I argue that the policies implemented by developing governments and the investment promotion institutions through which these policies are channeled are crucial for determining the investment profiles of firms. More importantly, I show that adaptive industrial policies which move developing countries to higher value-added activities can be effective even in an era of multinational production. Drawing on large datasets with sector-specific and firm-level investment data, I illuminate the ways in which governments have succeeded and failed in integrating multinational investment into development trajectories. I also include a case study analysis of Ireland, which through the last twenty-five years has managed to attract some innovation-intensive FDI. The Irish case, while complex, illustrates how host country policies and institutions can influence both the character of incoming investment and how firm investment profiles change over time.