Institutional Similarity and Bilateral FDI

In this paper we assess the effect of institutional similarity on foreign direct investment. In a large panel of bilateral FDI stocks that covers roughly 190 countries both as host and source country of FDI we demonstrate that it is not similarity in general, but similarity with respect to government involvement in markets and with respect to corruption that matters. Our finding is robust to a large set of different panel estimators and specifications of the gravity model that is underlying our estimation.