Speaker: Ouyang Difei Assistant Professor

Time: 10:00-11:30, December 22, 2023

Address: Conference Room 618, School of Economics, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University

Summary:

   Human capital is believed to be critical in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) across countries, yet less is known about this relationship at the sub-national level within host countries. In this paper, we study how human capital affects FDI location choice at the sub-national level by taking advantage of the geographical variation resulting from China's college admission expansion that began in 1999 and led to a plausibly exogenous surge of college-educated workforce after 2002.

Our triple difference analyses find that human capital-intensive manufacturing industries in cities more exposed to college expansion experience larger growth in foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) after 2002 than in prior years. This effect is more prominent in export-oriented regions and industries, broadly consistent with the efficiency-seeking vertical FDI hypothesis. Additionally, we find pronounced positive effects on FIE expansion in terms of outputs and exports, implying real growth effects.

Introduction of the speaker:

  Professor Ouyang Difei is an Assistant Professor of Economics at University of International Business and Economics. He holds a PhD in Economics from University of Geneva. His research interests include development economics, international trade, banking and finance, and Chinese economy. Professor Ouyang has a wide range of academic interests and has published research achievements in domestic and international academic journals such as European Economic Review, Journal of Comparative Economics, Economics (Quarterly) and World Economy.

Organizer：School of Economics, Zhejiang University

Undertaker：Institute of Labor Economics, Zhejiang University; Department of Labor Economics, School of Economics; Research Center of Livelihood Security and Public Governance, Zhejiang University