Regional determinants of foreign direct investment : - A study of eastern China

Abstract: This paper presents a study of which affect determining factors of foreign direct investment (FDI) has had in China’s eastern provinces. The eastern region is studies to shed more light on why these provinces has been able to attract more FDI than the central and western provinces. FDI theory gives an explanation to why business make direct investments on foreign markets and what factors that affect these decisions. Four of these factors; wage, education level, GDP per capita and level of infrastructure are studied using data from China Statistical Yearbooks. Data is studied by using an index created by the author. The results indicate that education level is of importance when wage levels increase in order to keep attracting FDI. Also, a positive relationship between infrastructure and FDI inflow is found.