Introduction

The internationalization of production as well as consumption has been a one of the key features of the world economy since the mid nineteen-eighties. It has been estimated that nowadays some 65 thousand transnational corporations have established more than 850 thousand foreign affiliates. Their combined sales reaching of USD 18.7 trillion was almost twice as high as the total world export in 2004 and they reached almost half of the total world GDP in current prices in 2004. The worldwide stock of outward foreign direct investment (FDI), which now represents a major form of ...