Outward FDI and the Investment Development Path in Romania

Our study characterizes the outward FDI phenomenon in Romania in the light of Dunning’s Investment Development Path theory, based on the relationship between a country’s development level and its net international investment position, that has previously been applied to most CEE countries except for ours. A series of indicators are used, concluding that, nowadays, Romania is situated in the second stage of IDP. More, we found that the IDP paradigm is generally applicable to Romania; the specific feature consists in bigger growth rates of FDI inflows than of GDP in the first stages of IDP. Some policy implications are drawn.