Financial globalization and foreign direct investment

This chapter provides a broad overview of the upward trends in financial globalization and foreign direct investment and asks whether and how financial globalization is linked with the foreign direct investment decisions of non-financial multinational enterprises. Several potential links and their empirical support in the recent literature are discussed: the elements of foreign direct investment that require (global) financial services; the role of trade credit; and the question whether banks follow their customers abroad. Finally, the effect of the recent financial crisis is discussed. It finds that financial globalization provides a reduction in broadly defined transaction costs which can boost both trade and foreign direct investment, at the costs of more exposure of the real economy to financial shocks.