The Implications of the Shift Towards Services in Multinationals' Activities: Evidence From the Greek Case.

Greece has been a traditional recipient of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

since the early 1950s. The country constitutes an excellent example of how a

small, open but peripheral economy, gradually changes according to the

process of economic development. The paper’s main target is dual: First to

provide a comprehensive description of Greece’s position in attracting FDI

today and second to explain the location determinants of the structural change

in Greek inward foreign investments from manufacturing to services. Whilst in

the late eighties, inward investments mainly targeted the manufacturing sector,

Greece nowadays attracts primarily FDI in services such as financial

intermediation, real estate etc. Traditional factors attracting FDI seem to

dominate the international investors’ decisions as well as capital productivity

and labour costs on the sectoral level, these are significant influences when

investing in Greece. The paper concludes by offering interesting policy

implications.