Migration and the Location of MNEs Activities. Evidence from Italian Provinces

Luigi Benfratello, Davide Castellani and Anna D’Ambrosio
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Anna D’Ambrosio: Politecnico di Torino
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Anna D'Ambrosio

John H Dunning Centre for International Business Discussion Papers from Henley Business School, University of Reading

Abstract: This paper investigates the link between migration and inward FDI in narrow geographies. Our results, based on 1,147 greenfield investment projects made by 895 MNEs into Italian provinces (NUTS3) over the 2003-2015 period, confirm a positive effect of the stock of immigrants on FDI, but no robust effects of emigrants. However, beyond this average effect lies significant heterogeneity. By unraveling this heterogeneity, we shed light on the potential mechanisms underlying this relation. Our results are consistent with an important role of demand and information channels, but not with an effect through the labour market. On the one hand, immigrants are not a factor that attracts more labour-intensive investments. On the other hand, the effect of immigrants is stronger when information and, to a lesser extent, market demand are more important. Overall, our paper bears significant implications for local development policy that partially contrast with the current public discourse on immigration.

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Migration; Location Choice; Information Effect; Demand Effect; Conditional Logit; Mixed Logit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F21 F22 R30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-int, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Migration and the location of MNE activities: Evidence from Italian provinces (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rdg:jhdxdp:jhd-dp2019-04

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