Despite a growing consensus that host country institutions affect the spatial distribution of foreign direct investment, there is a debate about which institutions drive this relationship. This study contributes to this debate by examining the relationship between foreign direct investment net inflows and three judicial institutions of property rights protection: judicial contract enforcement, judicial independence, and judicial impartiality. I evaluate this relationship by applying the system-GMM estimation approach to a sample of 150 countries covering the period 2000–16. I find robust evidence of positive relationships between FDI net inflows and both judicial independence and judicial impartiality. On the other hand, judicial contract enforcement appears to be weakly related to FDI net inflows. The results are robust to alternative specifications and estimation methods, including the instrumental variables approach. While the findings of this study reinforce the notion that host country institutions matter for foreign direct investment, they, more importantly, underscore the merits of unbundling institutions to understand their impact on multinational firm activity.

尽管越来越多的人认为东道国机构会影响外国直接投资的空间分布，但关于哪些机构推动这种关系的争论仍在争论。这项研究通过考察外国直接投资净流入与财产权保护的三个司法机构之间的关系，为司法辩论做出了贡献：司法合同执行，司法独立和司法公正。我通过对涵盖2000-16期间150个国家的样本应用系统GMM估计方法来评估这种关系。我发现有力的证据证明外国直接投资净流入与司法独立性和司法公正性之间存在积极关系。另一方面，司法合同的执行似乎与外国直接投资净流入之间的联系较弱。结果对于包括仪器变量方法在内的替代规范和估计方法是可靠的。尽管本研究的结果强化了东道国机构对外国直接投资至关重要的观点，但更重要的是，它们强调了分拆机构的优点，以了解它们对跨国公司活动的影响。