IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/ifwkpb/162.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Reluctant US vs ambitious German direct investment in China: The tale of two strategies

Author

Listed:
  • Langhammer, Rolf J.

Abstract

The author shows that the US as the world's largest investor abroad so far shuns the most dynamic host region East Asia including China and instead continues to focus on investment in Europe. In contrast, Germany follows a different path. Similar to trade, German companies have been very active as investors, especially in China. The author explains the discrepancies in the regional structure of FDI by (1) differences in the sectoral focus: US in services and Germany in manufacturing, (2) differences in the regulatory framework protecting national security in the two home countries: much stronger in the US than in Germany especially against China, and (3) differences in Chinese policy interventions: stronger in services than in manufacturing. It can be expected that rising tensions between China and the US will lead to stronger trends of technological self-reliance on both sides, a higher local content of production and more importance of protecting national security. Against this backdrop, US companies with their low presence in China might face less challenges than German companies which are more subject to path dependency given their high presence in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Langhammer, Rolf J., 2022. "Reluctant US vs ambitious German direct investment in China: The tale of two strategies," Kiel Policy Brief 162, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwkpb:162
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/250308/1/1793376441.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rammer, Christian & Spielkamp, Alfred, 2015. "Hidden Champions - Driven by Innovation: Empirische Befunde auf Basis des Mannheimer Innovationspanels," ZEW Dokumentationen 15-03, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Feld, Lars P. & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Schnabel, Isabel & Truger, Achim & Wieland, Volker, 2019. "Den Strukturwandel meistern. Jahresgutachten 2019/20 [Dealing with Structural Change. Annual Report 2019/20]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201920.
    2. Benz Lena & Block Jörn H. & Johann Matthias S., 2024. "Hidden champions as a determinant of regional development: An analysis of german districts," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 68(1), pages 9-39.
    3. Wittenstein, Daniel, 2020. "Champions of digital transformation? The dynamic capabilities of hidden champions," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-065, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Warta, Katharina & Dudenbostel, Tobias & Gassler, Helmut & Rammer, Christian & Köhler, Mila, 2019. "Evaluierung der Frontrunner-Initiative. Endbericht im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie (BMVIT)," ZEW Expertises, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, number 222380.
    5. Matthias S. Johann & Jörn H. Block & Lena Benz, 2022. "Financial performance of hidden champions: Evidence from German manufacturing firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 873-892, October.
    6. Rammer, Christian & Spielkamp, Alfred, 2019. "The distinct features of hidden champions in Germany: A dynamic capabilities view," ZEW Discussion Papers 19-012, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Foreign direct investment; US; Germany; East Asia; national security; Ausländische Direktinvestitionen; USA; Deutschland; Ostasien; China; nationale Sicherheit;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwkpb:162. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iwkiede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.