Siyao Li is Assistant Professor of International Affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in Statistics from the Wharton School. Her research focuses on the politics of foreign direct investment and trade, and business-government relations and her work has appeared in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of European Public Policy, and Political Science Research and Methods.

• 1. Introduction; 2. How MNCs shape domestic rules across jurisdictions; 3 Closing the institutional gap: quantitative tests; 4. Business interests and domestic sources of intellectual property demands; 5. Foreign investors in China and Vietnam; 6. Assessing firm strategies in the context of informal institutions; 7. Conclusion.

'In 'Closing the Institutional Gap', Siyao Li analyzes the ways international corporations try to protect their assets, especially their intellectual property. In a novel analysis, she argues that multinational investors use a variety of legal, political, and diplomatic methods to get host countries to enact 'institutional' protections for the corporations' intangible assets. This book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the politics of international investment, especially in the economically and politically crucial economic sectors that rely on secure intellectual property rights.' Jeffry Frieden, Columbia University