International Financial Management: Globalization and Multi-national Firm (Essay Sample)

Subject: Finance
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Question: Evaluate the extent to which the bargaining model can be viewed as a practical implementation of the law of comparative advantage?
Introduction
International Financial Management is a coined term in today’s world, and it is also known as International Finance. In simple words, it means financial management in an International business environment. International Financial Management is, however, different countries and regions due to the different currencies, government situations, political situations, deficient markets, varied opportunity sets (Susan, & Anil 2009, pp. 381–399)
International Financial Management came into the limelight when countries started opening up their borders due to the liberation and globalization policies that came with capitalism. Because of the open borders and increased freedom to conduct business in any country around the world. Entrepreneurs started to source for raw materials and establish their business in different countries provided that the state met the preferences of the entrepreneur (Wissam & Ellen 2014). The development of liberalization was further enhanced by the swift move towards development of telecommunication and transport technologies. Financial innovations such as currency derivatives, multi-currency bonds, cross-border stock listing and International mutual funds further catalyzed the development of international financial management (Frederic et al. 2010, pp. 395-427)
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Globalization and Multi-national Firm.
Globalization has manifested itself in today’s world through the relationship of financial markets, increasing roles of the multinational corporations, the dependence of the local economies on foreign trade, transfer of technologies. This type of relationship has led to demands for harmonization of the world statically standards (Susan, & Anil 2009, pp. 381–399). Harmonization and standardization include updating the National Accounts System and the Balances of payment among other systems that would make the exchange of capital easier. Multinational firms have contributed a lot towards international financial management, in fact, MNCs are the focal point for the studies of International Financial Management. Globalization has enabled companies to expand their territories to different countries and regions. For example countries like NIKE, Nescafé, and Shell Oil among others are present in almost the whole world.
According to Frederic et al. (2010, pp. 395-427), the structure of the global industry has experienced great changes especially in the 1990s due to the cross-border mergers and acquisitions; this is evident since most companies committing their affairs freely with stakeholders in different parts of the world is becoming standard. A massive increment by $200 billion to more than $500 billion in cross-border mergers was recorded in a span of only 2years i.e. from 1995 to 1999. This lead to the healthy of business especially to the advanced developing countries like Taiwan and Hong Kong who are currently leading in investing in China and other South East Asia countries. In South America Brazilian and Chilean firms have dominated the region. In the same sense, Brazil and Argentina based companies have reciprocated. Korean companies overseas are roughly one-third of the massive domestic investments during 1999.
Due to this traffic foreign investment and trade have developed to become inter-wined. There are exports of foreign affiliates in developing states to the parent organizations overseas. This accounts for one-third of all the exports that originate from developing countries while two-thirds of the developing states involve a multinational buyer or seller. In the least developed countries, these ratios are probably higher because of the advantage that Multinational Corporations take over the cheap labor available in these countries. The rise of Multinational companies and foreign ownership has given various opinions about their effects on the developing countries.
International Monetary System.
Chiara et al. (2010, pp. 42-65), outlines that the international monetary system involves the management of money flows in conjunction with institutions that are government related that keep track of vast bulk of money including supporting currency needs and it also ensures payment obligations within and across countries are met accordingly. Various institutions that are responsible and are part of the international monetary system include the central banks international financial institutions, commercial banks, and some monetary market funds. Wissam and Ellen (2014), adds that one distinguishing factor that makes IMS different from other financial institutions is that IMS is not interest bearing. Instead, money is considered as a unit of account and also means of exchanging goods and service and capital flows across borders in order to facilitate and ensure a perfect environment for exchange of financial assets and the excellent of financial markets. The commonly known definition of money since time immemorial is that it’s an asset in addition to its storage of value.
The USD has incurred changes that have been unheard of especially the one noted in 1985 where the dollar had hit a peak of USD 100 Billion a year. According to most economists was far much beyond the equilibrium level that has ever been attained. This record was due to the high exchanging rate which was a sign of confidence in the US economy, the high rate of exchange was due to the sticker hypothesis of the Dornbusch to fiscal irresponsibility. It was then decided that the dollar value be lower without considering much what took it high by intervening in the foreign exchange markets, this was done for the protectionist sentiment that conducted the US Congress that was mounting trading deficit
A plaza agreement that was formed by the big five countries i.e. united states France Japan great Britain and West Germany, a coordinated program to reach the target of forcing down the enormously shooting US dollar value against other currencies, the program worked perfect was successful in the end. It lost 11 percent of its SDR in 1986, the decrement of the US dollar was steady when Italy and Canada joined the group 5, forming a new group known as the G-7.The policies worked like a charm, and the US promised to cut the budget deficit and ultimately lower the rate at which the dollar was growing. To achieve this further Japan and Canada promised to stimulate their economies, although they achieved the reduction of the dollar value the budget cuts weren't forthcoming and so Germany and Japan never succeeded in their mission to stimulate their economies (Arthur 2003, pp. 979-992).
Trade is among the factors in addition to inequities that balances out countries in todays world. These fluctuations in a system of a freely floating exchange of goods and services gives the adjustment system to bring trade back to balances. A country that has both trade and account deficit could get back to balance through devaluing its currency which will increase its exports and lessen the amount of imports (Chiara et al. 2010, pp. 42-65). In reality the existence of chronic trade deficits in country have consequences to the economy through the systems of flexible exchange rate. One of the main reason for the failure in adjustment of exchange rates is deficit for incentives for various states to keep their currency strong in order to attract foreign investments. But according to the reports by the World Bank over valued currencies only impairs trade more while calling for more inflow of foreign currencies. Finally the game reaches the end and the investors run away and the deficit country have a fall in their currency that erodes even the domestic savings and ushers in inflation and these leads to the IMF emergency assistance that is directed towards economic austerity. World Bank statistics recognizes the fact that a mechanism of semifixed exchange rates that provides for flexibility in a narrow range and orderly mechanism for adjustments for such ranges. In 1994 the former chairman of the Bretton Woods Commission Volcker Paul openly condemned the liberation of the exchange rates and advocated for the semifixed exchange rate regime (Jean et al. 2005, pp. 1-43). In exchange for the Bretton Woods Institution (World Bank and IMF) the countries suffering from deficits are expected to implement a range of deflationary fiscal and deflationary policies, in the late 1990s they were known as Structural Adjustment Program and mostly implemented through letters of intent. The process is usually refer to us loan conditionality’s since IMF financial assistances are conditioned when implementing policy reforms (Xiaoying & Xiaming 2005, pp. 393-407).
Foreign Direct Investments.
The rise of foreign Direct Investment started over tree decades ago. From 1980s when the FDI flow was estimated to be 50 billion US Dollars per year OFD has grown up to 2.1 trillion US Dollars in 2007. Due to the economic recession in 2008 FDI fell down to 1.9 trillion US Dollars that is -10% (James & Mark 2000). Foreign direct Investments from developed countries have increased due to the high growth in economies and high performance from the corporate world of these countries.
OFDI particularly flows from the European Union and The United States of America who take up to 84%, the remaining 16% is represented by the transitional economies (BRIC countries).
The distribution of emerging market OFDI has evolved considerably changed over the past years. Asia overtook Latin America and Caribbean America has become leading region for Foreign Direct Investment. While MNCs have become fundamental investors in many developing countries, t...