The spatial distribution of foreign direct investment in producer services in the United States: 1978 to 1987

The purpose of this dissertation was to describe the spatial distribution of foreign direct investment in producer services in the United States between 1978 and 1987. The primary aim of the study was to investigate the state level distribution of incoming investment in the producer services sector. However, secondary aims included a study of the links between foreign investment in producer services and local economic factors; and an investigation of the distribution of the sources of producer services foreign direct investment.;It was discovered that producer services foreign investment is concentrated in the coastal states, particularly New York and California. However, there has been a considerable redistribution of new investment since 1978, with states in the East North Central and South Atlantic experiencing considerable growth in foreign owned producer services firms.;In addition, investments initially were concentrated in a very few large metropolitan areas. Over the ten year study period, investments filtered down through the urban hierarchy and by 1987 foreign direct investments in producer services were common in a tier of medium-sized cities such as Ann Arbor, Milwaukee, and Portland.;Few links were found between foreign direct investment and local economic factors, with the exception that employment in foreign owned financial service firms was highly correlated with employment in domestic financial service firms, suggesting that agglomeration economies are important in attracting FDI in financial services.;In terms of source of FDI in producer services, most investment came from Europe, and Canada. However, in recent years, investment from Asia has become increasingly important. Spatial links were found between sources and destinations of producer services FDI. Generally, sources of producer services FDI invested in geographically proximate regions of the US. However, over time such associations became weaker as investors expanded the spatial scope of their investments.