Migrant business networks and FDI

This paper studies the effects of migration on the bilateral FDI of four European countries, Germany, Italy, France and the U.K. It is based on four distinct datasets with time spans going from 1990 to 2004. It focuses on the impact on FDI of skilled and less-skilled immigrants and on the networks’ ties with the less developed countries. Results are that the effects of skilled immigrants are positive and robust for both inward and outward FDI, and that networks linked to the developing countries mostly have stronger effects on the outward FDI than those related to the developed economies.