Document de treball 2003/4: FDI Determinant Factors: The Case of Catalan Multinational Manufacturing Firms

In recent years, and for the first time in Spanish economic history, outward direct investment flows outweigh inward flows. Catalan manufacturing not only mirrors this pattern, but also represents a high proportion of all Spanish manufacturing outward direct investment. In this paper, we analyse the factors that determine outward direct investment by Catalan manufacturing firms. We apply Dunning’s eclectic paradigm, which distinguishes between ownership, internalisation and location advantages. In applied studies, these advantages have usually been approximated by variables relating to the investing firm and variables about host countries. Our research endeavours to identify which of these variables determine the probability of a manufacturing Catalan firm to own production subsidiaries overseas.