Foreign direct investment in countries of the former Soviet Union: Relationship to governance, economic freedom and corruption perception

The modernisation of the economies of the former Soviet Union (FSU) will require substantial levels of foreign direct investment (FDI). The aim of this study is to examine factors which may be instrumental in determining this level of the FDI. It achieves this by establishing quantitative relationships between levels of FDI per capita to the year 2004 and three sets of indicators relating, respectively, to governance, economic freedom, and corruption perception. The paper demonstrates that the level of FDI in FSU states has been determined to a significant extent by the degree of reform from a planned economy towards a market economy.