The objective of this article is to develop a model of the regional distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Russia based on panel data for 1996-2003 taking into consideration implications shown in preceding studies on the geography of FDI in Russia. Through descriptive statistical and econometric analysis, the following conclusions were reached. First, there is a notable deviation of FDI in Russia among regions; however, a clear geographical pattern, similar to that in Central and Eastern European countries and China, can not be observed. Second, resource endowments, market factors and social development factors, to which the preceding studies attach importance as determinants for the regional selection of FDI, also proved to have high significance and explanatory power in the empirical analysis. In addition, it has been suggested that climate and favourable regionally discriminatory FDI measures are possible investment factors. Third, evidence suggesting that the Russian financial crisis in 1998 had a statistically significant influence on the decision-making process of foreign investors was not found in this analysis.

Abstract:In this paper, we estimate the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on total factor productivity (TFP) in Russian regions, paying special attention to the country's investment boom and the remarkable regional gaps in terms of cumulative direct investments in and after 2003. We also examine possible synergistic effects between FDI and local R&D potential to test the absorptive capacity hypothesis. Our estimation results strongly suggest the remarkable role of FDI in the regional economic development in Russia. In addition, we found that the positive effect of FDI on TFP may increase in the regions that received larger amounts of foreign capital.Furthermore, we detected a surprisingly robust and positive synergistic effect between FDI and local R&D potential, indicating that the absorptive capability is essential for linking FDI and regional economic development in Russia. JEL classification numbers: F21, O11, P25, P33, R11

It is highly likely that EU accession negotiation had a large influence on foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Central and Eastern European countries involved therein. We found that as the membership talks progressed, the effect of attracting FDI to candidate states tended to increase gradually. It also became clear that EU member candidate countries experienced an adverse impact on FDI at the very final phase of the negotiation. This might have been due to the substantial revision of conventional FDI incentives, which most likely was the price paid for becoming new EU members. The relationship between the progress in the EU enlargement process and FDI received by the candidate countries was not a simple positive relationship, but followed a reverse J-shaped curve.JEL classification numbers: F21, F23, F59, O52, P33.

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