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Foreign Direct Investment and Agglomeration: Evidence from Italy

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Raffaello Bronzini ()

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Abstract

A number of empirical works analyzed the effect of agglomeration on multinational investment verifying whether agglomerated areas attract foreign direct investment. Despite the large amount of studies, there has been no systematic attempts to disentangle whether FDI are drawn by the concentration of firms within the same sector (specialization) or within different sectors (diversity). Furthermore, the question whether firms’ size of the host area influences multinational investment is still unanswered. This paper provides an empirical evidence on the role of agglomeration economies in attracting foreign direct investments within Italian regions and provinces, distinguishing between specialization and diversity externalities, and on the role of firms’ size in affecting foreign investors’ choices. We employ a new territorial data set on foreign direct investment collected by the Italian Foreign Exchange Office for industrial and service sectors. We find a strong evidence that specialized geographic areas attract FDI, whereas diversified areas draw FDI only for industrial sectors; finally there is little evidence that firm size has an impact on FDI, if anything, only big firms in Southern regions would seem to affect positively foreign investor decisions.

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Paper provided by European Regional Science Association in its series ERSA conference papers with number ersa04p321.

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Date of creation: Aug 2004
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Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p321

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  1. Raffaele Paci & Stefano Usai, 1999. "The role of specialisation and diversity externalities in the agglomeration of innovative activities," Working Paper CRENoS 199915, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Frank Barry & Holger Görg & Eric Strobl, 2001. "Foreign Direct Investment, Agglomerations and Demonstration Effects - An Empirical Investigation," Working Papers 200104, School Of Economics, University College Dublin. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Arellano, Manuel & Honore, Bo, 2001. "Panel data models: some recent developments," Handbook of Econometrics, in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 53, pages 3229-3296 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Guiso, Luigi & Parigi, Giuseppe, 1996. "Investment and Demand Uncertainty," CEPR Discussion Papers 1497, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Head, Keith & Ries, John & Swenson, Deborah, 1995. "Agglomeration benefits and location choice: Evidence from Japanese manufacturing investments in the United States," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 223-247, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Keith Head & John C. Ries & Deborah L. Swenson, 1994. "The Attraction of Foreign Manufacturing Investments: Investment Promotion and Agglomeration Economies," NBER Working Papers 4878, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. repec:pal:jintbs:v:26:y:1995:i:4:p:815-841 is not listed on IDEAS
  8. Robert Dekle, 2002. "Industrial Concentration And Regional Growth: Evidence From The Prefectures," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 310-315, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Glaeser, Edward L & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(6), pages 1126-52, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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    • Edward L. Glaeser & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1991. "Growth in Cities," NBER Working Papers 3787, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Honore, Bo E, 1992. "Trimmed LAD and Least Squares Estimation of Truncated and Censored Regression Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(3), pages 533-65, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Henderson, Vernon & Kuncoro, Ari & Turner, Matt, 1995. "Industrial Development in Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 1067-90, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Forni, Mario & Paba, Sergio, 2002. "Spillovers and the Growth of Local Industries," Journal of Industrial Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(2), pages 151-71, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Billington, Nicholas, 1999. "The Location of Foreign Direct Investment: An Empirical Analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 65-76, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Roberto Basile & Luigi Benfratello & Davide Castellani, 2005. "Attracting Foreign Investments in Europe - are Italian Regions Doomed?," ERSA conference papers ersa05p148, European Regional Science Association. [Downloadable!]
  2. Chen, George Shih-Ku, 2009. "Agglomeration economies and the location of Taiwanese investment in China," MPRA Paper 13896, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  3. George Shih-Ku Chen, 2009. "Are Financial Sector Policies Effective In Deepening The Malaysian Financial System?," Monash Economics Working Papers 02/09, Monash University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  4. Roberto Antonietti & Giulio Cainelli, 2007. "Spatial Agglomeration, Technology and Outsourcing of Knowledge Intensive Business Services Empirical Insights from Italy," Working Papers 2007.79, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei. [Downloadable!]
  5. Roberto Basile & Luigi Benfratello & Davide Castellani, 2005. "Attracting Foreign Direct Investments in Europe: are Italian Regions Doomed?," Development Working Papers 200, Centro Studi Luca d\'Agliano, University of Milano. [Downloadable!]
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