SELECTING A SITE FOR A MANUFACTURING PLANT

Suggested Resources for this Exercise globalEDGE™ (globaledge.msu.edu) provides a range of information. Specific Internet sites that focus on the extent of government intervention and political risk are: Index of Economic Freedom (www.heritage.org/research/features/index (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.), which provides data on the extent of government intervention at the country level Freedom House (www.freedomhouse.org (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.), which publishes Freedom in the World Comparative Rankings, an annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights in most countries Transparency International: www.transparency.org (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., offering information on corruption levels, political stability, and extent of government intervention. Sites for assessing the level of intellectual property violations and protections abroad include: International Intellectual Property Alliance (www.iipa.com (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.) Office of the United States Trade Representative (www.ustr.gov (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.). For information on the quality and education level of workers, as well as labor costs, unions, and productivity, visit the following: U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov/fls/home.htm (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.), which provides international comparisons of hourly compensation costs, productivity, and consumer prices International Labor Organization (www.ilo.org) and their International Labour Office database (laborsta.ilo.org), which offer data on work hours, wages, consumer price indices, labor union strikes and lockouts Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (www.oecd.org (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.), provides data on labor and productivity Data on national financial and economic conditions can be found at the International Monetary Fund (www.imf.org (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.; Click on “Data and Statistics”). For information on international educational level: The World Bank (www.worldbank.org (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.) provides useful data on education level of workers and quality of infrastructure. For example, see the data for each country on “literacy rate”, “level of school enrollment”, “paved roads”, “fixed line and mobile phone subscribers”. At the World Bank site, click on “Data & Research”; enter a country name into the relevant search engine. Additional information on individual countries can be found in the: Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook).