20.05.2025
09:15-10:00

Green(ing) Foreign Direct Investment and Sustainable Regional Development

WIFO Research Seminar
Organised by: Austrian Institute of Economic Research
  • Speaker:
  • Riccardo Crescenzi (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Language: English
WIFO, Helene Lieser Saal or online via MS Teams
As the world transitions to net-zero emissions, goods and services are increasingly incorporating green attributes. Achieving this shift requires new and diverse technologies and processes to deliver sustainable products from conception to end use (and beyond).
Participation via MS Teams

Securing the capital, skills and knowledge for this green transition is one of the greatest challenges of our time, particularly in a time of growing competing priorities and pressures for public budgets. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can play a pivotal role in catalysing the green transition in host economies, yet the existing literature still lacks a clear understanding of "green" FDI and how it responds to national and regional public policy.

This talk offers preliminary insights into these questions by using state-of-the-art "Large Language Model" (LLM) methods to identify green FDI beyond traditional sector-based definitions, providing a more nuanced view of the green transformation taking place across various industries and geographies in Europe. These emerging trends and patterns are then linked to the role of public policies by examining how national and regional authorities attract green FDI through an innovative survey.

By combining data on green FDI flows with information on the presence and timing of green FDI priority initiatives from 170 "Investment Promotion Agencies" (IPA) across Europe, Crescenzi and his colleagues investigate the effectiveness of targeted and selective policy efforts in bringing green capital, skills and knowledge to regions, thereby supporting the green transition on the ground.

Please be aware that this seminar will be recorded and published digitally.