Dialect Diversity and Foreign Direct Investment in China

Wei Feng, Yanrui Wu and Yue Fu

China & World Economy, 2021, vol. 29, issue 2, 49-72

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between dialect diversity and foreign direct investment (FDI) using a dataset of 230 Chinese cities for the period 2000–2014. We find that dialect diversity and FDI absorption are negatively correlated. However, this negative relationship disappears gradually over time. Several underlying mechanisms are identified. In particular, it is found that dialect diversity impedes human capital development and hence obstructs FDI absorption. Our results also show that there are threshold and spatial spillover effects. This research increases knowledge of FDI location choice and has implications for foreign investment policymaking.

Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/cwe.12370

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:chinae:v:29:y:2021:i:2:p:49-72

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1671-2234

Access Statistics for this article

China & World Economy is currently edited by Yongding Yu

More articles in China & World Economy from Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().