Mapping the Characteristics of Foreign Investment Screening Mechanisms: The New PRISM Dataset.

This article focuses on the recent expansion and evolving politics of investment screening mechanisms (ISMs) in advanced industrialized economies, particularly within Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 2007 to 2021. ISMs are legal processes that allow governments to review and potentially restrict foreign direct investment (FDI) transactions on national security grounds, a practice that has grown markedly since the 2008 financial crisis amid rising geoeconomic competition and technological risks. The authors introduce the Politics and Regulation of Investment Screening Mechanisms (PRISM) dataset, which systematically codes seven key features of ISMs across OECD countries, revealing trends such as broader sectoral coverage, lower transaction thresholds for review, and increasing convergence of screening policies. Preliminary analyses using PRISM data suggest that the rise of Chinese outward investment correlates with the adoption of stricter screening laws, and that countries with higher domestic research and development (R&D) spending tend to implement more extensive sectoral screening. The dataset offers a foundation for further research on the securitization of economic policy, the political dynamics of investment regulation, and the implications of ISMs for global economic integration in an era of great power competition.