This laboratory will utilize extensive data on foreign direct investment (FDI). At the macro level, we will employ FDI data from UNCTAD, encompassing both greenfield investments and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A). At the micro level, we will leverage global enterprise-level greenfield investment data from the FDI Market and the China Global Investment Tracker database provided by the Heritage Foundation, as well as global enterprise-level M&A data sourced from the Thomson SDC and Zephyr databases.

The figure below illustrates the close interconnections among countries regarding foreign direct investment flows in 2012, with particularly pronounced connections evident among countries at the center of the network. 

Additionally, the figure displays the structure and changes in the foreign direct investment relationship network from 2001 to 2011, indicating that the structural characteristics of various countries are similar to those observed in 2012. All networks depicted in Figure 4 exhibit tight interconnections between nations, particularly among countries that serve as central nodes in the foreign direct investment network.