What Is Real and What Is Not in the Global FDI Network? /

Macro statistics on foreign direct investment (FDI) are blurred by offshore centers with enormous inward and outward investment positions. This paper uses several new data sources, both macro and micro, to estimate the global FDI network while disentangling real investment and phantom investment and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Damgaard, Jannick
Other Authors: Elkjaer, Thomas, Johannesen, Niels
Format: Journal
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2019.
Series:IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2019/274
Online Access:Full text available on IMF
Description
Summary:Macro statistics on foreign direct investment (FDI) are blurred by offshore centers with enormous inward and outward investment positions. This paper uses several new data sources, both macro and micro, to estimate the global FDI network while disentangling real investment and phantom investment and allocating real investment to ultimate investor economies. We find that phantom investment into corporate shells with no substance and no real links to the local economy may account for almost 40 percent of global FDI. Ignoring phantom investment and allocating real investment to ultimate investors increases the explanatory power of standard gravity variables by around 25 percent.
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Physical Description:1 online resource (54 pages)
Format:Mode of access: Internet
ISSN:1018-5941
Access:Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students