Literature review of 100 empirical studies of Foreign Direct Investment: 1950-2015

International capital allocation influences has a social, political and economic impact on the trading countries. Thus, it has been investigated so as to determine the key factors of capital flows and their impact on the host country’s economy. The present essay involves a literature review of 100 empirical papers focusing on capital movement and in particular in Foreign Direct Investment (F.D.I.) inflows worldwide. The papers are discussed based on the statistical method applied, the sample chosen and the trends on the variables used. More recent empirical papers include larger samples of countries and the researchers don’t tend to focus on case studies. Furthermore, it is argued that the empirical studies involve countries of every geographical region despite the fact that most of them focus on the largest recipients of F.D.I., that is to say the Asian and the Latin American countries.