A global analysis of factors impacting the intensive and extensive margins of bilateral foreign direct investment

This study investigates determinants of bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) on both margins, the extensive margin (whether to invest) and the intensive margin (how much to invest), based on the recent structural gravity model for FDI developed by Anderson et al. (Trade and investment in the global economy. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, 2017). I examine a global data set comprised of 110 countries over 9 years, 2004–12. Apart from conventional gravity variables, the source country's technology capital shows a significant and positive impact on both FDI margins. Bilateral investment treaties play a significant role only in determining the extensive margin. Results on FDI stocks and FDI flows can lead to different conclusions; thus, research should consult both types of data series to find which variables have robust effects. Furthermore, breaking down the sample by country development levels reveals that FDI from less‐developed countries (LDCs) is not affected by many common variables, and thus, there is a need to develop more theories and empirical work to investigate the FDI from LDCs in particular.     

A comparison of FDI determinants in China and India

This study explores foreign direct investment (FDI) determinants in China and India and fills the gap in the literature by providing a comprehensive empirical comparison analysis. Two panel data sets and two statistical models are employed to identify the determinants of FDI inflows from home countries worldwide to the two host countries by considering both home and host countries' characteristics. The empirical results show some interesting similarities and differences between the two countries. Market growth, imports, labor costs, and country political risk/policy liberalization are the determinants for both countries. However, exports, market size, and borrowing costs are important to China's FDI, while geographical and cultural distance factors are important to India's FDI. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

What determines Chinese outward FDI?

Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased substantially in recent years. Though this has generated considerable interest in the motivations and drivers of Chinese investment abroad, there have been few systematic empirical studies of these questions. This paper performs an econometric analysis of the host country determinants of Chinese outward FDI in the period 2003-2006. We find that Chinese outward FDI is attracted to large markets, and to countries with a combination of large natural resources and poor institutions. Disaggregation shows that the former effect is related to OECD countries, whereas the latter interaction effect holds for non-OECD countries.     

Similarities and differences among cross-border M&A and greenfield FDI determinants: Evidence from Asia and Oceania

Firms choose either cross-border M&A or greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) when expanding their operations overseas. In this study, by focusing on Japanese firms pursuing FDI in emerging countries in Asia and Oceania, we provide empirical evidence of the similarities and differences in cross-border M&A and greenfield FDI determinants. We derive the following four main conclusions. First, an increase in host-country population size and decreases in per capita income and corporate tax rates generally attract both inward cross-border M&A and greenfield FDI to the host country. Second, however, a home-country firm tends to choose cross-border M&A rather than greenfield FDI when the host country sufficiently implements shareholder rights laws and the firm tends to choose greenfield FDI rather than cross-border M&A when the host country adequately enforces intellectual property rights laws. Third, a firm tends to choose greenfield FDI when the firm already has regional networks in the host country and choose cross-border M&A when the purpose of the firm's overseas operations is to establish sales distribution channels. Finally, a firm pursuing cross-border M&A experiences higher cumulative abnormal returns in its stock prices following the investment, while a firm pursuing greenfield FDI experiences increases in its stock prices immediately before the investment.     

基于中国FDI的空间计量分析

八十年代以来,随着国际直接投资(FDI)的迅速增长,很多学者便开始将研究的目光放在了国际直接投资上。但总体上说来大部分关于国际直接投资的实证文献主要是基于投资国和受资国的双边联系,而对第三方在这种关系中的作用和扮演的角色,没有进行相应的探讨。本文借用基于面板数据的空间计量模型方法,从地区之间的空间关系的视角考察了中国地区之间在国际直接投资上互相影响的模式,并分析了形成这种空间作用模式的原因。     

The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Services

This paper has two main objectives: first, to consider country specific determinants that attract services FDI, and second, to compare the importance of these determinants vis‐à‐vis traditional determinants that attract manufacturing FDI. Using OECD countries as our sample, and 1980 to 2003 as our time period, we consider the determinants of inward FDI in a panel setting. Our results provide empirical evidence to support the view that no new theories may be necessary to explain the determinants of services FDI.     

Source Country Characteristics and the Inflow of Foreign Direct Investment into Saudi Arabia

The paper examines the impact of source country characteristics on the inflow of FDI into Saudi Arabia using a gravity‐type model including economic, distance and socio‐political variables. A unique database listing all new investments involving foreign ownership is used to construct a panel of 33 countries in the period 1980–2005. To account for many country–year observations with zero FDI, the negative binomial regression, the Tobit regression and the Heckman selection procedure are used. The conclusions drawn from the analysis employing panel‐based techniques differ from the results obtained from pooled regression models. Also, the determinants of FDI differ depending on whether foreign investment is measured in terms of investment expenditure or the number of individual foreign projects. The Heckman selection results reveal that there are a large number of factors affecting the decision to invest in Saudi Arabia, compared with relatively few determinants of the actual size of investment. Traditional size and distance characteristics hold to a great extent but the relationship between FDI and bilateral trade is unclear and there is some evidence that the countries that export to Saudi Arabia do not invest there. In terms of scope for possible spillovers, there is mixed evidence on whether the investment comes from more technologically advanced economies but volume‐wise important investments originate from countries characterised by high income per capita.     

Country factor differentials as determinants of FDI flow to China

Given the large size and rapid growth of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, a systematic analysis of the connection between FDI and the characteristics of source countries provides clearer insights into the roles of home‐country factors in the vast but still fast‐growing foreign investment in China. Unlike the existing mainstream studies of FDI in China, this analysis focuses on the effects of country‐factor differentials (between investing countries and China) on the FDI flow to China. Based on data from 21 source countries over a period of 17 years, this paper examines the impacts of eight variables in three sets of country factors, namely market conditions, risk, and financial factors. The statistical results show that, while the market‐condition variables and the high values of source country currencies positively influenced the flow of FDI to China, the relatively high costs of capital borrowing and political and operational risks in China inhibited the flow of FDI. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Extending Dunning's Investment Development Path: The role of home country institutional determinants in explaining outward foreign direct investment

Recent years have seen an increase in outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from emerging markets and post-communist economies alike. Given the specific institutional fabric of these countries, the question is whether mainstream theory can explain the drivers of foreign direct investment outflows or whether new theories are needed to explain this phenomenon. This paper aims to investigate the home country determinants of OFDI from post-communist economies. We augment the Investment Development Path (IDP) with explanations derived from institutional theory and explain the effects of home country institutional factors on the level of OFDI. We test our hypotheses using random effects estimations on a comprehensive panel dataset comprising of OFDI from 20 Central- and Eastern European countries. Our results support the IDP's main propositions but also highlight the importance of accounting for home country institutional factors when investigating the determinants of OFDI. In particular, we find that the inclusion of institutional variables increases the explanatory power of our models and that competition policy and overall institutional reforms play a crucial role in explaining OFDI from CEE countries with important implications for FDI theory.     

Does good governance matter for FDI inflows? Evidence from Asian economies

This paper examines the effects of the six components of good governance on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in 15 Asian economies for the period 1996–2007 using a fixed effect model for panel data with heteroskedasticity corrected standard errors. The study also employs the feasible general least square (FGLS) and Prais-Winstein panel estimation methods in order to check the consistency of the results with the fixed effect model. The empirical results reveal that of the six components of good governance, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, rule of law, and control of corruption are the key determinants of FDI inflows, as they exhibit consistent results under different models. However, the study finds no significant evidence with voice and accountability and regulatory quality in FDI inflows. The study reveals that human capital, infrastructure, lending rate, and GDP growth rate also have a significant influence on FDI inflows. We conclude that a country which can enhance its governance environment in general is likely to attract more foreign direct investment despite offsetting deficiencies in other dimensions of good governance such as voice and accountability and regulatory quality.     

Does distance matter in foreign direct investment sub-national location choice? Evidence from China

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) make investment decisions according to the distance factors at a sub-national level. This paper made estimates using the gravity model with provincial foreign direct investment (FDI) data from 2000 to 2012 and employed three concepts of distance. Our empirical results indicate that geographic distance and cultural distance have significant negative effects on FDI flow, whereas economic distance has a significant positive effect. It suggests that FDI prefers to locate in regions that are geographically and culturally close but economically distant from the home country, which further implies that FDI in China is dominated by vertical FDI. Our findings suggest that Chinese provincial governments should place emphasis on attracting FDI from culturally close countries and provide institutional support to encourage and promote horizontal FDI.     

No Risk,No Fun? Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe

In the course of transition from planned economies to market economies, foreign direct investment played an important role and contributed to international economic integration in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper investigates the determinants of FDI in Central and Eastern Europe, a region which in large part still lacks strong institutions. The empirical analysis presented in this article fi nds evidence that country default risk is not necessarily a hindrance to FDI. In contrast, factors like market size, labour cost and trade liberalisation do matter for FDI engagement in the region.     

An exploratory examination of the social capital and FDI linkage and the moderating role of regulatory quality: A cross‐country study

Despite the urge for broader macro‐level examinations of the distinct social constructions within which economic activities take place, numerous national‐level studies of the determinants of foreign‐invested firms have paid little attention to the roles played by social capital and its contingent value in affecting foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. Drawing on the logic of social capital and institutional theory, this article seeks to offer a complementary, rather than a substitutional, explanation of FDI by examining empirically the national‐level impacts of social capital (trust and associative activity) on FDI and the moderating role of regulatory quality in this relationship. Based on the data of 165 country series from the World Value Survey and the World Bank, our analytical results supported the hypotheses that the rich endowments of social capital positively contributed to the attraction of FDI and such effects are also contingent on the regulatory quality that further strengthened such relationships. These findings also suggest strong implications for managers implementing an FDI and market entry strategy. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

FDI、国际贸易及我国经济增长的协整分析与VECM模型

本文利用我国1983-2004年的经济数据进行实证检验,根据协整理论建立向量误差修正模型(VECM)。实证结果说明外国直接投资、国际贸易与经济增长间具有长期均衡关系,且我国国内生产总值的增长与外国直接投资有双向因果关系,但相互影响的程度不同;我国为出口导向型经济增长国家且外国直接投资对国际贸易具有促进作用.     

Modes of Foreign Direct Investment and Patterns of Trade: An Alternative Empirical Approach

Modes of FDI can be clarified by analysing the changing patterns of trade among host, home and third countries. However, most empirical experiments of foreign direct investment (FDI) determinants have been confined to general characteristics of host countries and multinational enterprises' outward investment activities. This may not clearly characterise the specific characteristics of inward FDI in regard to the host country. Thus, we introduce an alternative approach to clarify modes of FDI by investigating the link between patterns of trade and inward FDI. To empirically test whether our approach is applicable, we choose China during the period 1998–2007. We construct a modified gravity equation of bilateral trade while considering spatially lagged interdependence between host, home and third countries. The problem of endogeneity is controlled by applying the system generalised method of moments (GMM) estimation technique. Our findings are consistent with results in existing studies on modes of outward FDI to China and prove that our approach in dealing with the link between patterns of trade and inward FDI has wide applicability to all modes of FDI. We discover there is strong evidence for statistically significant complementarity between bilateral trade and inward FDI within the aggregate trade data. As we decompose the aggregate trade data into final and intermediate goods, we find the motivation concerning export‐platform and complex vertical FDI is very significant. In addition, as we separate the bilateral partners into developing partners and developed partners, we find both bilateral and multilateral linkages are much stronger with developing partners.     

Foreign direct investment (FDI) determinants and spatial spillovers across Mexico's states

This article studies the location pattern of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mexico for the period 1994–2004. An empirical model is specified based on recent FDI theories. This model is estimated using state-level data and employing spatial econometric techniques. Results suggest that higher education levels and lower delinquency rates are important determinants to attract FDI. Results also suggest a relationship of complementarity between inbound FDI to the host state and inward FDI to its neighboring states.     

Governance and Globalisation

Unlike the large literature on ‘democracy and trade’, there is a much smaller literature on the effect of the level of democracy in a nation on the level of its foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow. These few studies reveal mixed empirical results, and surprisingly only one study has examined bilateral FDI flows. Moreover, few of these studies use multiple governance indicators separating the ‘pluralism’ effect of democratic institutions from the ‘good governance’ effect, there are no studies on democratic institutions’ various effects on the level of FDI relative to trade, and there are no studies of democratic institutions’ various effects on the selection of countries into FDI. We focus on three contributions. First, we examine the simultaneous effects of the World Bank's (six) Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGIs) – which allow separating the effects of pluralism from those of five other good governance measures – on bilateral trade, FDI and FDI relative to trade using state‐of‐the‐art gravity specifications. Second, we find strong evidence that – after accounting for host governments’ effectiveness in various roles of good governance – a higher level of pluralism as measured by the WGIs’ Voice and Accountability Index reduces trade levels, likely by increasing the ‘voice’ of more protectionist less‐skilled workers, but not FDI levels. Moreover, we find qualitatively different effects of other WGIs – such as political stability – on trade versus FDI flows. Third, we account for firm heterogeneity alongside a large number of zeros in bilateral FDI flows using recent advances in gravity modelling. We distinguish between the (country) intensive and extensive margins and show that pluralism affects FDI inflows negatively at the intensive margin, but positively at the extensive margin.     

Religion and foreign direct investment

This study examines the effect of religion on foreign direct investment (FDI). Using a large sample of directional FDI flows and religious data between 1985 and 2019, we calculate the religious distance between home and host countries and find that FDI flows are smaller for country pairs with greater religious distance. This finding remains intact after a host of variables affecting FDI are controlled. Moreover, the negative effect of religious differences is less pronounced if the host country has higher religious diversity or both countries have a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) in force. Finally, we construct a country-level measure for religiosity and find an asymmetric effect of religiosity on FDI flows. Overall, our study suggests that both religious differences and the level of religiosity play important roles in explaining international FDI flows. (JEL F21, F41, Z12)     

Foreign Direct Investment Policy–Friendly Business Environment in R&D Sectors: Baltic States versus Visegrad Countries

This article examines the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) policy on inward FDI in the Visegrad and Baltic countries. The analysis of business environment highlights that the countries in both regions attempt to create a friendly business environment by means of similar methods. However, the countries in both regions focus on fiscal incentives such as taxes, which do not play a major role in attracting inward FDI in R&D. The results of attracting FDI are better in the Visegrad countries, which implement financial incentives toward inward FDI along with fiscal incentives. According to empirical analysis, it is noticed that a higher intervention level and a higher support level guarantee the volume of inward FDI. The country's introduced FDI policy enables it to orient industry and to implement economic strategic targets. FDI policy does have an impact on promoting the development of the entire country.     

A note on export-platform Foreign Direct Investment,training and absorptive capacity

The empirical literature on FDI suggests that investment in training is the major source of human resource development activities undertaken by MNEs, particularly those with sophisticated technologies, and host countries' absorptive capacity plays an important role in attracting FDI. We develop a model of export-platform FDI that provides theoretical rationalisation of the role played by a host country's absorptive capacity in determining MNEs' location decisions as well as their level of investment and training–and, through this, the extent to which they contribute to human capital formation in the host country.