2. Motives for foreign direct investment
The earliest theories of FDI, dating to the 1950s, saw cross-border investments mainly as transfers of capital between countries (Macdougall 1960). The main motives for these capital flows were thought to be related to cross-country differences in capital returns. Capital was abundant in rich countries (read the US), the best investment opportunities were already exploited, and the marginal return to capital was therefore low. Poorer countries (read Western Europe) still had unexploited investment opportunities and a higher return to investment. By moving their investments from richer to poorer countries, capital owners could exploit these cross-country differences in returns.. The main impact of FDI on the home country was also believed to be related to capital flows, both in terms of investments (with foreign investment substituting for domestic investment) and balance-of-payments effects (with initial capital outflows to finance the foreign investment project and subsequent inflows of capital in the form of repatriated profits). Similar arguments were made on the basis of differences in the cost of labor and other inputs, as well as differences in returns related to tax rates, tariffs, and other kinds of government interventions (Horst 1971, Caves 1996).