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Attracting Foreign Direct Investments in Europe: are Italian Regions Doomed?

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Author Info

  • Roberto Basile

    (Isae (Rome) and University of Macerata)

  • Luigi Benfratello

    (University of Turin and Ceris-CNR(Turin))

  • Davide Castellani

    (University of Urbino and Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano)

Abstract

During the nineties, Europe became a major recipient of FDIs but Italian regions have been largely excluded from this process. Was it due to their characteristics, or were Italian regions ‘doomed’ by a negative country effect? In this paper we address this issue by estimating the determinants of multinational firms’ location choices in 52 EU regions. We find that Italian regions indeed attracted significantly less than their observable potential, and that this could be explained by the inefficiency of the bureaucratic apparatus and of the legal system. The effect of taxes is instead strongly sensitive to the inclusion of agglomeration variables and is asymmetric across regions.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Centro Studi Luca d\'Agliano, University of Milano in its series Development Working Papers with number 200.

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Date of creation: 15 Jun 2005
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Handle: RePEc:csl:devewp:200

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Keywords: multinational firms; location choices; Italy; institutions and policies; negative binomial regression;

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References

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  1. Michael Devereux & Rachel Griffith, 1996. "Taxes and the location of production: evidence from a panel of US multinationals," IFS Working Papers W96/14, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  2. Roberto Basile, 2002. "The Locational Determinants of Foreign-Owned Manufacturing Plants in Italy: Preliminary Results," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 92(4), pages 61-92, July-Augu.
  3. Roberto Basile & Davide Castellani & Antonello Zanfei, 2003. "Location choices of multinational firms in Europe: the role of national boundaries and EU policy," International Trade 0310001, EconWPA.
  4. Devereux, Michael P & Griffith, Rachel, 2003. "Evaluating Tax Policy for Location Decisions," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 107-26, March.
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  17. Gross, Dominique M. & Ryan, Michael, 2008. "FDI location and size: Does employment protection legislation matter?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 590-605, November.
  18. Roberto Basile, 2002. "Acquisition versus greenfield investment: the location of foreign manufacturers in Italy," ISAE Working Papers 27, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY).
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  23. Agnès Bénassy-Quéré & Lionel Fontagné & Amina Lahrèche-Revil, 2000. "Foreign Direct Investment and the Prospects for Tax Co-Ordination in Europe," Working Papers 2000-06, CEPII research center.
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Cited by:
  1. Roberto Basile & Luigi Benfratello & Davide Castellani, 2010. "Location Determinants of Greenfield Foreign Investments in the Enlarged Europe: Evidence from a Spatial Autoregressive Negative Binomial Additive Model," Working papers 10, Former Department of Economics and Public Finance "G. Prato", University of Torino.
  2. Renato Redondi & Mariasole Bannò & Marco Mutinelli, 2011. "Air Connectivity and Foreign Direct Investments The economic effects of the introduction of new routes," ERSA conference papers ersa11p249, European Regional Science Association.

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