INTERREGIONAL IMPACT OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT ON CHINA’S INLAND URBANIZATION

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China is heavily concentrated in coastal region, which has attracted large amount of rural migrant workers from inland region. This type of population migration associated with FDI may have an impact on China’s inland urbanization. There is however little research on this topic. This paper aims to investigate the interregional impact of FDI on China’s inland urbanization. The study finds that on average FDI has negative interregional impact on inland urbanization. However, FDI in coastal and inland regions engaged in different trade modes (processing versus ordinary trade) has different interregional impact on China’s inland urbanization.