Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis paper examines the relationship between foreign direct investment and well-being in poor countries, as measured by life expectancy and child mortality. The effect of foreign direct investment on impoverished nations has long been the subject of debate in both economics and sociology. While much of the previous literature has investigated foreign direct investment's effect on measures of well-being, this paper constitutes a new contribution by examining the structure of this investment in the form of foreign direct investment concentration. Foreign direct investment concentration is the proportion of investment from the top investing nation, and greater levels are hypothesized to have a detrimental impact on life expectancy and under-five mortality. Drawing from a variety of theoretical perspectives, including modernization/liberalism and dependency theory, this paper uses a panel data set and a longitudinal methodology. The hypothesis is partially supported: while neither FDI nor FDI concentration are significant indicators of life expectancy or under-five mortality, FDI concentration reduces life expectancy in Asian countries

Testing a global city hypothesis : an assessment of polarization across US cities

Social polarization is perhaps most evident within the world's large cities where we can easily observe stark contrasts between wealth and poverty. A world city theoretical perspective has emerged that associates large cities importance in a global network of cities to the degree of internal polarization within these cities. The research reported here locates 57 large US cities within this world city hierarchy and then empirically examines the hypothesized positive association between global centrality and social polarization using a multivariate, cross-city analysis. The findings are mixed, with some evidence that global centrality increases income polarization, but only in the context of higher levels of immigration. There is no evidence that a city's centrality affects occupational polarization. We conclude by suggesting implications for the world city literature and future research