Overview

In the last quarter century, the U.S. economy has been transformed by a large inflow of direct investment from abroad. Foreign companies, mainly from Europe and Japan, have built factories and acquired U.S. firms at an ever-increasing rate. Jonathan Crystal finds inconsistencies in how American businesses have responded to this globalization of production.U.S. firms, especially multinationals, have conflicting interests regarding investment protection, Crystal shows. Many American firms, under siege from overseas competitors, have already expended considerable energy in obtaining trade protection, but they are competing not only with foreign imports but also with locally established foreign-owned firms. American businesses may favor stricter regulation of foreign companies that threaten their bottom line, but they also consider their own interests as global investors subject to retaliatory protection in other countries. Restrictions on ""foreign"" investment, it seems, are not so attractive when they are imposed by other countries.Unwanted Company examines the different ways in which important U.S. industries (including semiconductors, automobiles, steel, consumer electronics, telecommunications, and airlines) reacted to this new challenge. It focuses on the political responses of U.S.-owned firms to how Washington ought to regulate foreign direct investment and how it ought to treat foreign-owned firms in the United States. Some industries welcomed (or at least didn't oppose) foreign investment, whereas others sought restrictive and discriminatory policies. Crystal demonstrates how the nature of the domestic political environment shapes the translation of economic interests into policy preferences.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jonathan Crystal
Publisher:   Cornell University Press
Imprint:   Cornell University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.907kg
ISBN:  

9780801441233

ISBN 10:   0801441234
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   22 July 2003
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you.

Table of Contents

The challenge of incoming foreign direct investment; Political responses to foreign investment; An economic response - consumer electronics and steel; An ambivalent response - semiconductors and automobiles; A liberal response - machine tools and antifriction bearings; A strategic response - airlines and telecommunication services.

Reviews

Crystal (political scientist, Fordham Univ.) argues that the rational choice model should be supplemented by an appreciation of political context (institutions, regulations, and ideologies) in order to fully understand the range of policy preferences across and within industries regarding incoming foreign direct investment (IFDI)...This excellent study should be of particular interest to students of international political economy. Summing Up: Recommended. Four-year college and graduate libraries and professional collections. -Choice, January 2004 Jonathan Crystal explores how ... U.S. industries have responded to the challenges of foreign competition, especially inward foreign direct investment... Unwanted Company demonstrates the readiness of some U.S. businesses to the look to the government for relief when they are under pressure. -Foreign Affairs, May/June 2004 Unwanted Company usefully draws our attention to the impact of political factors on firms' decisions to translate their desire for greater profit into preferences for supportive government action. Crystal's use of domestic institutions and norms to understand these decisions offers a promising avenue for future research, and his detailed discussions of the sectors' policy preference regarding the regulation of inward foreign direct investment provide a valuable resource for students of U.S. foreign economic policy. -Andrew P. Cortell, Lewis and Clark College, Perspectives on Politics, vol. 2, no. 2, December 2004 Jonathan Crystal's innovative and interesting book explores the political underpinnings of market openness in advanced industrial economies. It carefully elucidates the way firms in important American industries calculate the costs and benefits of competing strategies for dealing with incoming foreign direct investment. Its important findings suggest not the impossibility of the world retreating from the quest for global markets, but the existence of more stable foundations for economic openness than observers focused on traditional international trade negotiations have often imagined. -Louis W. Pauly, Director, Center for International Studies and Canada Research Chair in International Political Economy, University of Toronto, author of Who Elected the Bankers?: Surveillance and Control in the World Economy, and co-editor of Governing the World's Money Jonathan Crystal's argument is clear and compelling as he answers such interesting questions as How and why did U.S. firms respond to incoming foreign direct investment the way they did? and What does their behavior tell us about our own reactions to globalization? It highlights the messiness of decision making even when the goal is fairly simple-make and increase profits-because of conflicting interests and policies. -Vicki Golich, California State University, San Marcos Jonathan Crystal starts with a clever puzzle: Why did American firms put far less effort into curbing competition from transplants than in seeking trade protection? Not only does Crystal extend the reach of political economy to the important but theoretically knotty subject of multinational companies, but also he reveals with great attention to detail the role of institutions and ideologies along with that of already-known economic variables in the formulation of policy preferences. The evidence is rich and the analysis well informed. Unwanted Company superbly shows that profit maximization takes peculiar and hard-to-predict forms when cast outside the familiar realm of the trade debate. -Daniel Verdier, Ohio State University

Jonathan Crystal starts with a clever puzzle: Why did American firms put far less effort into curbing competition from transplants than in seeking trade protection? Not only does Crystal extend the reach of political economy to the important but theoretically knotty subject of multinational companies, but also he reveals with great attention to detail the role of institutions and ideologies along with that of already-known economic variables in the formulation of policy preferences. The evidence is rich and the analysis well informed. Unwanted Company superbly shows that profit maximization takes peculiar and hard-to-predict forms when cast outside the familiar realm of the trade debate. Daniel Verdier, Ohio State University

Jonathan Crystal starts with a clever puzzle: Why did American firms put far less effort into curbing competition from transplants than in seeking trade protection? Not only does Crystal extend the reach of political economy to the important but theoretically knotty subject of multinational companies, but also he reveals with great attention to detail the role of institutions and ideologies along with that of already-known economic variables in the formulation of policy preferences. The evidence is rich and the analysis well informed. Unwanted Company superbly shows that profit maximization takes peculiar and hard-to-predict forms when cast outside the familiar realm of the trade debate. -Daniel Verdier, Ohio State University

Author Information

Jonathan Crystal is Associate Professor of Political Science, Fordham University.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions