International attractiveness of cities: The drivers of urban FDI

Abstract

Foreign direct investment (FDI) nowadays mostly corresponds to activities in urban areas. This study provides the first global analysis of the determinants of urban FDI (UFDI). We assemble and exploit a unique database on the location choices of multinational enterprises in urban areas worldwide to investigate the relevance of local, national, and dynamic drivers of cities' international attractiveness. We find that attractive cities are large, productive, endowed with transport infrastructure able to move goods and people within and beyond their borders, abundant in educated people, and embedded in attractive national spaces. Cities combining all these attributes tend to attract service activities. Attractiveness is persistent but can evolve depending on economic dynamism. A variance decomposition analysis indicates that the location choices of UFDI are mainly driven by city‐level determinants, notably transport infrastructure.