Abstract

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the most important factors in helping countries develop. As a result, being able to obtain FDI is necessary in order to for states to thrive in the global arena. However, much debate exists on the best qualities and factors required for states to obtain foreign direct investment, such as their regime type and respect for human rights and media scrutiny. In addition, when states are hosting mega sporting events, such as the Olympics, there is another level of focus placed upon the country through the media presence the event brings. This research aims to understand, in the context of the Olympics, which regime type and qualities of government help host countries gain the most foreign direct investment. Specifically, I ask how regime type, human rights, and media attention impacts the amount of foreign direct investment states receive when they are the host of the Olympics. I hypothesize that the more democratic a country is and the greater its protection of human rights, then it will gain more foreign direct investment when they are the host of the Olympics. To study this, both qualitative and quantitative measures are used. For the qualitative data, case studies of the 2000 Sydney and the 2008 Beijing Olympics are analyzed. For the quantitative, several regression models using ordinary least squares are used, employing a data set consisting of nineteen Olympic hosts from 1980-2018. The results show that media attention, human rights, and government type do not have a statistically significant impact on foreign direct investment, however, trends were present that indicated results matching my hypothesis.

Advisor

Davis, Erik

Department

Political Science

Publication Date

2023

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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