APERTURA INTERNAZIONALE E CAPITALE TERRITORIALE: GLI INVESTIMENTI ESTERI COME NUOVO FATTORE DI CRESCITA DEI DISTRETTI INDUSTRIALI

The paper explores the effects of inward foreign direct investments (FDIs) on the Veneto’ industrial districts, with a focus on the skill composition. A counterfactual analysis has been developed to compare the employment composition of Uninational District Firms (Uni) to the one of inward FDIs located in the 28 industrial districts in 2014. The paper adopts a novel database consisting of: (i) inward FDIs in Italy (Reprint-Ice); (ii) district firms’ balance sheets (Aida), both Uni and inward FDIs; (iii) firms’ employment composi- tion (Sistema Informativo Lavoro Veneto - Silv). The counterfactual analysis shows that inward FDIs hire a larger share of high skilled workers. Foreign multinational enterprises, indeed, pay higher wages to attract more skilled workers and to cope with information asymmetry.