Effects of Global Competitiveness, Human Development, and Corruption on Inward Foreign Direct Investment

The purpose of this paper is to investigate which of Dunning's location-specific advantages of host countries, presented as composite indices for Global Competitiveness, Human Development and Corruption Perception, better predict the level of inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). A stepwise multiple regression method was applied on a sample of 129 countries, which was further divided into two subgroups: OECD members and non-OECD members. The study provides evidence that global competitiveness and the level of corruption of the host country are important determinants for inward FDI. For non-OECD countries the Human Development index appears to be an additional FDI determinant. More empirical research utilizing time series or panel data technique is needed to further explore this area of research.