Publication Type

Working Paper

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

10-2014

Abstract

This paper develops a theory on the complementarity in institutional qualities between the home and host countries in bilateral FDI. Firms ‘born’ in countries with poorer institutions tend to invest more in informal institutions to mitigate political risk. The marginal advantage of higher informal institution endowment is bigger when the political risk at the FDI destination is higher. Thus, all else being equal, the ranking of the MNE’s home institutions predicts the ranking of the institutional qualities of their FDI destinations. I find robust empirical evidence for this theoretical prediction using bilateral FDI for 219 economies during year 2001-2010.

Keywords

Foreign Direct Investment, Informal Institution, Political Risk, Gravity Equation, Tobit

Discipline

Economics | International Economics

Research Areas

International Economics

First Page

1

Last Page

36

Publisher

SMU Economics and Statistics Working Paper Series, No. 20-2014

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

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