Dynamic Evolution of the Location of FDI:An Empirical Study Based on City-level Data

With the development of China’s domestic economy,the operating environment of multinational enterprises is changing as well;therefore,the determinants of FDI are not static all the time.Based on the cities data of Jing-jin-ji Region,the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta,this paper tries to explore the dynamic evolution of FDI’s location.The results show that,at the early stages,preferential policies,low labor costs and the size of the market are crucial for all the three economic regions to attract FDI.However,preferential policies lost their decisive roles in attracting FDI in recent years,agglomeration effectand infrastructure,especially postal and telecommunications facilities are foremost for FDI location.However,high costs in land using inhibit FDI inflow for the three economic regions in different degrees.Moreover,the results also reveal that FDI in Jingjin-ji Region and the Yangtze River Delta is changing from a labor-intensive feature to a knowledge-intensive and technology-intensive transformation gradually,while FDI is still labor-intensive in Pearl River Delta region.