IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hai/wpaper/200807.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Labor Market Flexibility as a Determinant of FDI Inflows

Author

Listed:
  • Hazel Parcon

    (Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa)

Abstract

This paper shows that labor market flexibility, measured by labor market standards and regulations, has two opposing effects on FDI inflows. Labor market regulations and standards decrease FDI inflows through the cost channel, but they increase FDI inflows through the productivity channel. Allowing for a non-linear relationship between different indicators of labor market flexibility and FDI inflows revealed that some degree of labor market standards and regulations may be attractive for foreign investors. Results strongly suggest that foreign investments to and from different countries and in different sectors are affected differently by different aspects of labor market standards and regulations.

Suggested Citation

  • Hazel Parcon, 2008. "Labor Market Flexibility as a Determinant of FDI Inflows," Working Papers 200807, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hai:wpaper:200807
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/WP_08-7.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2008
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William N. Cooke & Deborah S. Noble, 1998. "Industrial Relations Systems and US Foreign Direct Investment Abroad," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 36(4), pages 581-609, December.
    2. Bruce Blonigen, 2005. "A Review of the Empirical Literature on FDI Determinants," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 33(4), pages 383-403, December.
    3. Cheng, Leonard K. & Kwan, Yum K., 2000. "What are the determinants of the location of foreign direct investment? The Chinese experience," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 379-400, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wasseem Mina, 2018. "Labor Market Policies and FDI Flows to GCC Countries," Working Papers 1201, Economic Research Forum, revised 27 May 2018.
    2. Per Skedinger, 2010. "Employment Protection Legislation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13686, December.
    3. Sulistiyo K. Ardiyono & Arianto A. Patunru, 2022. "The impact of employment protection on FDI at different stages of economic development," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(12), pages 3679-3714, December.
    4. Mina, Wasseem & Jaeck, Louis, 2015. "Labor Market Flexibility and FDI Flows: Evidence from Oil-Rich GCC and Middle Income Countries," MPRA Paper 62652, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Antonio Baez‐Morales, 2021. "A panel data analysis of FDI and informal labour markets," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(3), pages 346-363, July.
    6. Mina, Wasseem, 2020. "Do GCC market-oriented labor policies encourage inward FDI flows?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    7. Rong, Shu & Liu, Kai & Huang, Si & Zhang, Qi, 2020. "FDI, labor market flexibility and employment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    8. Saleh, Ali Salman & Anh Nguyen, Thi Lan & Vinen, Denis & Safari, Arsalan, 2017. "A new theoretical framework to assess Multinational Corporations’ motivation for Foreign Direct Investment: A case study on Vietnamese service industries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 630-644.
    9. Antonio Baez, 2014. "“A panel data analysis of FDI and informal labor markets”," IREA Working Papers 201404, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Feb 2014.
    10. Jeongseok Song & Daecheon Yang & Soonwon Kwon, 2017. "Fdi Consequences Of Downward Wage–Cost Rigidities," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 62(05), pages 1223-1244, December.
    11. Hamza Belfqih & Ahlam Qafas & Mounir Jerry, 2022. "Investigating the Nexus Between FDI and Institutional Quality: Evidence from Morocco," Global Journal of Emerging Market Economies, Emerging Markets Forum, vol. 14(3), pages 390-418, September.
    12. Mogab, J. & Kishan, R. & Vacaflores, D.E., 2013. "Labor Market Rigidity And Foreign Direct Investment: The Case Of Europe," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 13(1), pages 35-54.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wani, Mr. Nassir Ul Haq & Rehman, Mr. Noor, 2017. "Determinants of FDI in Afghanistan: An Empirical Analysis," MPRA Paper 81975, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 03 May 2016.
    2. Kolstad, Ivar & Villanger, Espen, 2008. "Determinants of foreign direct investment in services," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 518-533, June.
    3. Julian Donaubauer & Christian Dreger, 2018. "The End of Cheap Labor: Are Foreign Investors Leaving China?," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 17(2), pages 94-107, Summer.
    4. Taxiarchis Delis & Dimitrios Kyrkilis, 2017. "Locational Concentration of Foreign Direct Investment in China: a Cluster Factor-Based Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(4), pages 1115-1132, December.
    5. Mariam Camarero & Laura Montolio & Cecilio Tamarit, 2020. "Determinants of FDI for Spanish regions: evidence using stock data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 2779-2820, December.
    6. Konara, Palitha & Wei, Yingqi, 2019. "The complementarity of human capital and language capital in foreign direct investment," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 391-404.
    7. Görg, Holger & Lauber, Verena & Meyer, Birgit & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2008. "Firm heterogeneity and choice of ownership structure: an empirical analysis of German FDI in India," Kiel Working Papers 1462, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    8. Sara Amoroso & Mafini Dosso & Pietro Moncada-Paterno-Castello, 2015. "The impact of skill endowments and collective bargaining on knowledge-intensive greenfield FDI," JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation 2015-08, Joint Research Centre.
    9. Ling Feng & Lulan Ge & Zhiyuan Li & Ching‐Yi Lin, 2022. "Financial development and natural resources: The dynamics of China’s outward FDI," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 739-762, March.
    10. Maria Borga & Perla Ibarlucea Flores & Monika Sztajerowska, 2020. "Drivers of divestment decisions of multinational enterprises - A cross-country firm-level perspective," OECD Working Papers on International Investment 2019/03, OECD Publishing.
    11. Basu, Debarati & Mitra, Shabana & Purohit, Archana, 2023. "Does effective democracy explain MNE location choice?: Attractiveness to FDI and cross-border M&As," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    12. Miaozhi Yu & Na Wang, 2023. "The Influence of Geopolitical Risk on International Direct Investment and Its Countermeasures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-14, January.
    13. Peter Debaere & Joonhyung Lee & Myungho Paik, 2010. "Agglomeration, backward and forward linkages: evidence from South Korean investment in China," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 43(2), pages 520-546, May.
    14. José-Antonio Monteiro & Madina Kukenova, 2008. "Does Lax Environmental Regulation Attract FDI When Accounting For "Third-Country" Effects?," IRENE Working Papers 08-01, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    15. Campos, Nauro F. & Kinoshita, Yuko, 2008. "Foreign Direct Investment and Structural Reforms: Evidence from Eastern Europe and Latin America," IZA Discussion Papers 3332, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Tiago Loncan, 2021. "The Effects of Project Scale on FDI Location Choices: Evidence from Emerging Economies," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 157-205, April.
    17. Shao, Yanmin & Shang, Yan, 2016. "Decisions of OFDI Engagement and Location for Heterogeneous Multinational firms: Evidence from Chinese firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 178-187.
    18. Paul, Justin & Feliciano-Cestero, María M., 2021. "Five decades of research on foreign direct investment by MNEs: An overview and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 800-812.
    19. Johnson, Andreas, 2006. "FDI inflows to the Transition Economies in Eastern Europe: Magnitude and Determinants," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 59, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    20. repec:prg:jnlpep:v:preprint:id:652:p:1-17 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. He, Jia & Rui, Oliver M. & Zha, Xiaolei, 2011. "Governance Infrastructure and Location of Foreign Direct Investment in the People’s Republic of China," ADBI Working Papers 324, Asian Development Bank Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    foreign direct investment; labor market flexibility;

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hai:wpaper:200807. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Web Technician (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuhius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.