We show that the effectiveness of bilateral investment treaties in promoting FDI inflows remains elusive even when accounting for the strength of investor-state dispute settlement provisions contained in various, though far from all, BITs.

This paper analyzes how international rules are established and stabilized, i.e. how an international institutional order develops. Rules emerge mainly through learning from negative experience and serve to reduce transaction costs. The paper looks...

We focus on investor-state dispute settlement provisions contained in various, though far from all, bilateral investment treaties as a possible determinant of BIT-related effects on bilateral FDI flows. Our estimation results prove to be sensitive to...