Transnational social capital and FDI. Evidence from Italian associations worldwide

Emigrant associations abroad are structured nodes of social networks; they are
manifestations of a transnational social capital. Italian associations are numerous, spread across
several countries, in some cases they exist since the end of the nineteenth century, and may count
on high numbers of members. Also, they are robustly tied to the home country. This paper assesses
the effects of Italian associations abroad on the bilateral FDI between Italy and the countries of
settlement of Italian diaspora. The main results are that these effects are positive and strongly
significant, especially for the inward FDI and relatively to the countries with the oldest
associations