Fattori di attrazione degli investimenti diretti esteri nell’Unione Europea: il ruolo del contesto istituzionale e la competitività dell’Italia

The present paper tries to analyse Italy’s lack of competitiveness, focusing on FDI location determinants. An empirical analysis is performed to define FDI inflows determinants common to a narrow group of industrialised countries. The results of empirical estimates show that Italy’s appeal as FDI host country is poor compared to other major European countries. In fact comparing the FDI determinants’ endowment of European countries, Italy ranks low for competitiveness in terms of employers’ social security contributions, government interference with the market and R&D expenditure. To reduce this gap, Italy should improve its location-specific advantages creating a more FDI-friendly institutional context by the adoption of suitable economic policies.