Investigating Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investments: How Can Firm‐level Data Help?

Abstract

The empirical literature on China's outward foreign direct investment mainly relies on aggregate data from official statistics, but the reliability of such data is currently a matter of concern because it does not take account of relevant features such as industry breakdown, ownership structure and entry mode. A novel firm-level database, EMENDATA, compiled by matching data from several available sources on various types of cross-border deals and including information on group structure, provides a more accurate picture and enables new empirical analyses of the rapidly increasing presence of Chinese companies abroad. Based on this database, this paper offers a more precise assessment of the geographical and sector specialization patterns of Chinese outward foreign direct investment into Europe and suggests new avenues for future research

Impact of Foreign Direct Investment and Export on Urbanization: Evidence from China

“…Over the past decade, significant changes have occurred in China in terms of economic restructuring, industrial upgrading and the expansion of outward FDI (e.g. Amighini et al, 2014;Chen, 2015b), which have not only facilitated China's exports but also changed the regional composition of China's exports (e.g. Sun et al, 2012;Liu et al, 2015).…”

The impact of outward FDI on the performance of Chinese firms

“…Our analysis is based on a novel database, EMENDATA, which provides information on greenfield investments, M&As, and other minority investments (Amighini, Cozza, Rabellotti & Sanfilippo, 2014). EMENDATA matches different commercial data sources: the Financial Times Group's fDiMarkets, which provides information on greenfield investments, Bureau van Dijk's (BvD) Zephyr and Thomson Reuter's SDC Platinum which provide information on M&As and other minority investments (ownership shares of less than 50%).…”

“…The UK is the second most important destination, followed by France. 3 Chen and Tang acknowledge that MOFCOM data are biased towards financial centres such as Hong Kong and, in many cases, the real final destination of the investments is unknown (for a comparison of the data used in our empirical analysis vs MOFCOM data see Amighini et al, 2014). 4 Detailed information on EMENDATA is available in Amighini et al (2014) and Chaminade (2015).…”

“…3 Chen and Tang acknowledge that MOFCOM data are biased towards financial centres such as Hong Kong and, in many cases, the real final destination of the investments is unknown (for a comparison of the data used in our empirical analysis vs MOFCOM data see Amighini et al, 2014). 4 Detailed information on EMENDATA is available in Amighini et al (2014) and Chaminade (2015). 5 With the exception of a small number of firms for which consolidated balance sheets are not available, consolidated financial statements are used for the empirical analysis.…”

China’s Overseas Direct Investment and Reverse Knowledge Spillovers

“…Liu et al 2005;Buckley et al 2007;Cheung and Qian 2009;Tolentino 2010;Wei and Alon 2010;Cheung et al 2012;Kolstad and Wiig 2012;Amighini et al 2014;Chen 2015a). Unfortunately, empirical studies of the impact on China's economy of this rising OFDI are limited.…”