How important is employment protection legislation for Foreign Direct Investment flows in Central and Eastern European countries?1 |
| |
Authors: | Markus Leibrecht Johann Scharler |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna. E‐mail: markus.leibrecht@wu‐wien.ac.at;2. University of Linz. E‐mail: johann.scharler@jku.at |
| |
Abstract: | In this article we investigate empirically the importance of labour market conditions and in particular the role of employment protection legislation as determinants of bilateral Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). We find that FDI flows are significantly higher in countries with relatively low unit labour costs. We also find that employment protection legislation does not exert a statistically significant impact on FDI flows. Our results are consistent with the interpretation that transition economies attract FDI via low production costs whereas indirect costs related to the rigidity of the labour market are less relevant. |
| |
Keywords: | F21 F23 J50 Foreign Direct Investment Central and Eastern Europe labour market employment protection |
|