Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

National Income Inequality, Society, And Multinational Enterprises, Nathaniel C. Lupton, Guoliang Frank Jiang, Luis F. Escobar

Faculty Publications

This chapter calls for understanding the perspective of multinational enterprises (MNEs) on international differences in income inequality. The authors set a research agenda on how national differences in income inequality influence MNE expansion strategies. Applying a transaction cost framework, both negative and positive economic outcomes of income inequality, from the MNE's perspective, are identified. Low levels of income inequality may deter foreign investment, as MNEs prefer countries where they incur lower levels of transaction costs arising from interactions with various market and non-market actors. However, the positive effect of income inequality on location attractiveness will likely diminish at higher levels …