摘要：This paper studies the influence of a country’s transnational social capital - defined as
the shared customary values and beliefs of emigrant communities - on its external
transactions. It uses Italy’s emigrant associations abroad as a proxy of transnational social
capital and measures its effects on Italy’s bilateral FDI. Our results are that the associative
activity of emigrants, which partly dates far back into the past, positively and strongly
affects the Italian bilateral FDI, especially concerning the countries hosting the older
associations and the FDI into Italy.
