| In light of world economic events including regional integration in Europe, in the Maghreb, and more recently in the Middle East, the dissertation will examine and determine the motives, the determinants, and effects of FDI in the manufacturing sector in Morocco and how it is shaping the competitiveness of the nation.;Based on primary and secondary sources of data, it will focus on the motives and determinants of FDI and MNE activity in Morocco. It will look at the role of Ownership (O), Location (L), and Internalization (I) advantages as set out in the Eclectic Paradigm. It will test empirically some of the determinants and motives of FDI (multiple regression). And it will survey the majority of US firms and the leading French ones. The result of the survey will be tabulated and summarized in order to make comparisons between foreign and domestic firms in Morocco--in focusing on the export orientation, the efficiency and technology intensity of the 98 sub-sectors composing the Moroccan industry.;It will assess the competitiveness of Moroccan manufacturing sector and the major constraints to its development. Among the variables it will consider, it will pay especial attention to mainstream economic studies.;It will provide lessons and priorities of action in the light of globalizatioin of world economy and role of international businesses. And finally, it will make some predictions on future trends and give policy conclusion for government regulations.;From our empirical work, we found a relation between the unskilled labor intensity of the Moroccan manufacturing sector and inward FDI. We also found that in the high-tech industries Moroccan inward FDI is determined by industrial concentration and capital intensity. And we established that inward FDI is more oriented toward servicing the local market and does not extensively use a labor force holding technical degrees.;From our field study, we found very few statistical differences between US and French MNEs. Also, we found that the degree of importance of each variable tested in the survey of MNEs corresponds to the major findings in the literature of International Business. |
