Attracting foreign direct investment

Abstract

China receives a huge inflow of foreign direct investment in absolute dollars. But China is huge, and large countries normally receive a large amount of foreign investment. Does China receive a fair share of the world's investment after controlling for its vast size and other factors? What is China's potential to attract more investment? This paper investigates these questions by using a newly available data set that covers over a hundred recipient countries and five major source countries. Relative to an "average" host country, China appears to receive too little foreign investment from the four major source countries (U.S., Germany, France, and U.K.), although it may receive an adequate share of outward Japanese investment. Show more