Feicheng Wang receives NWO grant for project on the economic impact of the new Dutch investment controls

Assistant Professor Feicheng Wang has received a grant of € 50,000 from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for a project titled “Balancing Security and Prosperity: What Are the Economic Impacts of the New Dutch Investment Controls”.

Feicheng Wang’s project will provide the first comprehensive analysis of the economic impacts of the newly introduced investment screening mechanisms (ISMs) in the Netherlands by collecting novel data and employing state-of-the-art methods. As geopolitical tensions escalate, nations increasingly scrutinize foreign investments for national security risks. In response, the Netherlands has recently introduced stricter ISMs - under which foreign investors are required to gain approval from national authorities for making investments in security-sensitive sectors - to safeguard critical infrastructure and technologies. However, these measures may deter foreign investments and negatively affect the economy. The project’s findings will shed light on the trade-offs between security and prosperity and provide policymakers with crucial insights to optimize investment policies.

Netherlands as pilot study

Wang’s project will answer two specific research questions: what the costs and benefits are of the ISMs for the Dutch economy and whether newly invested firms perform differently with these policies. The project focuses on the Netherlands as a pilot study, with the goal of expanding it to a larger project that will cover all EU and OECD states and forming the basis for a new line of research.

Collecting data on the ISMs requires careful reading of official documents and online resources, along with manual coding to identify affected sectors and detailed screening criteria. Wang will make the detailed data collection process and the resulting data publicly available, aiming to foster collaborative efforts to ultimately build a cross-country database.

Wang is very pleased to receive the grant and excited to get started on the project. “The grant will enable me to explore the economic consequences of investment screening mechanisms in the Netherlands and potentially expand the analysis to a broader context. The development of this project was made possible thanks to the invaluable support from my colleagues. I really appreciate the supportive and encouraging environment at the Faculty of Economics and Business. Now I am looking forward to starting the project in January 2025 and sharing the findings with academics, policymakers, and practitioners.”

The NWO Open Competition

With the NWO Open Competition-SSH, NWO Social Sciences and Humanities wants to offer researchers the opportunity to carry out research into a subject of their own choosing without any thematic constraints. The aim is to facilitate excellent, non-programmed, curiosity-driven research that primarily addresses a social sciences or humanities research question and research problem.

Questions? Please contact Feicheng Wang.