Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
JUE洞察：软基础设施与跨国公司的区位选择——来自20世纪80年代日本在美国投资的证据
JUE insight: Soft infrastructure and the location choice of multinational firms: Evidence from Japanese investment in the United States in the 1980s
摘要
We examine whether culture-specific educational infrastructure influenced the location decisions of multinational enterprises by analyzing Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States over the 1980s. Using the expansion of Japanese FDI following Reagan-era trade tensions, we test whether preexisting Japanese Studies programs at U.S. universities predict subsequent Japanese investment across 722 commuting zones. We find that zones with Japanese Studies programs in 1975 were approximately 25 percentage points more likely to receive Japanese investment in 1992, controlling for traditional determinants like Japanese population, manufacturing infrastructure, agglomeration, and market access. The results are robust to alternative empirical methods, including the instrumental variable approach. Our results suggest that “soft infrastructure”—culture-specific human capital pipelines—represents an overlooked location advantage in attracting FDI.
中文摘要
我们考察特定文化教育基础设施是否影响了跨国企业的区位决策，通过分析20世纪80年代日本对美国的直接投资（FDI）来进行。利用里根时代贸易紧张局势后日本FDI的扩张，我们检验美国大学中既有的日本研究项目是否能预测随后日本在722个通勤区的投资。我们发现，在控制日本人口、制造业基础设施、集聚效应和市场准入等传统决定因素后，1975年设有日本研究项目的通勤区在1992年获得日本投资的可能性大约高出25个百分点。该结果在替代性实证方法下依然稳健，包括工具变量方法。我们的结果表明，“软基础设施”——特定文化的人力资本管道——代表了在吸引FDI方面一个被忽视的区位优势。