By Randolph Bruno, Nauro Campos, Saul Estrin
Do different economic integration arrangements vary in terms of their capacity to attract foreign direct investment? This column uses a structural gravity framework on annual bilateral FDI data for 142 countries between 1985 and 2018 to revisit this question. It finds that deep integration in the form of EU membership increases FDI by about 60% from outside the EU and by about 50% from within the EU. The effect of EU membership on FDI appears to be significantly larger than that from the less deep integration arrangements (EFTA, NAFTA, or MERCOSUR), with the Single Market the cornerstone of this differential impact.
Link: Foreign investment, European integration, and the Single Market