Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal 14 (2020–15)
www.economics-ejournal.org
2
1
Introduction
Many countries have traditionally used a locational model for their economic development
policies, which takes into account how government policies affect the locational decisions of
business and industry. Thus, these governments seek to design economic development policies
that would promote firms to locate in their countries by lowering costs for the factors of
production and providing tax incentives (Williams, 1967; Plaut and Pluta, 1983). Studies of this
issue have largely focused on effects on foreign direct investment (FDI). Scholars of FDI have
likewise explored the major determinants of firms’ investments and their locational decisions in
relation to a certain country.
Empirical studies of FDI have observed factors such as marketability, economic size, and
institutional capacities as possible FDI determinants for a given host country (Chan, 1995;
Ancharaz, 2003). In particular, studies of FDI have indicated that poor labor market conditions
are a critical obstacle to FDI inflows (e.g., Naylor and Santoni, 2003; Owen, 2013). Further,
managers of multinational enterprises have expressed a strong preference to consider investing
in regions with high labor availability and low labor costs (Arpan, 1981). For manufacturing in
particular, labor costs are an important factor for FDI inflows in the host country (Owen, 2013).
While previous works have expanded knowledge of the influence of labor market conditions on
multinational corporations’ location decision, the causal effects of labor costs on FDI have not
been adequately explored. The critical impact of the domestic labor supply on labor costs leads
this study to pay close attention to the impact of international migration, which could increase
the labor supply and lower wages.
This correlation of factors is important for the U.S. market. Not only has the U.S. been
much less supportive of labor markets than other advanced economies, it is also the host of
more immigrants, in absolute terms, than any other country. Moreover, the case of the U.S. is
interesting in that it has the most flexible labor market among the OECD countries, with lower
labor costs, low levels of unionization, and less regulation, and is experiencing a steady decline
in labor force participation, beginning in the mid-1960s. A recent report by the White House
Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) indicates that the U.S. has one of the lowest rates of
prime-age male labor force participation in the OECD countries (2016). Further, the CEA
indicates that the U.S. government spends 0.1% of U.S. GDP on policies to encourage active
labor markets, far below that of the OECD average, 0.6% of GDP. This action could be
expected to reduce labor supply and increase the minimum cost of labor. However, the U.S. has
become the destination of steady net immigration, which forms a significant part of the labor
supply and thus has helped keep labor costs in the U.S. market down. It is reasonable to suggest
that because the U.S. is the largest host country of FDI and has the highest immigrant
population in the world but suffers from among of the highest labor costs worldwide,
immigration could lead to potential increases in FDI inflows in the U.S. by improving the
flexibility of labor markets.
In this study, I suggest that in the U.S., less restrictive immigration policies directly increase
FDI inflows and indirectly increase FDI inflows by lowering potential labor costs and securing a
stable labor supply. The remainder of this research proceeds as follows. In the next section, I
briefly discuss the existing literature on the relationship between immigration and FDI. The
following section suggests a theoretical link between immigration and FDI. The next two