The impact of regional investment liberalization on foreign direct investment: A firm-level simulation assessment

With the proliferation of regional economic integration, investment liberalization has gained in importance. This paper conducts counterfactual policy experiments to simulate the response of multinational firms to a regional decline in investment costs. We find evidence of investment creation effects at the aggregate level. While there is weak evidence of investment diversion effects, the non-participation in regional integration discourages multinational activity of non-member countries. As less productive firms experience the extensive-margin growth strongly, the effects differ significantly by multinational firms with heterogeneous productivity.