"This paper proposes labour market institutional arrangements as a strategic device to induce or deter export-substituting inward foreign direct investments (FDI) — in either instance protecting domestic employment. In a union-oligopoly context it is shown that, if the FDI-associated unit costs (FC) are not high enough, then employment-neutral (-enhancing) inward FDI will emerge in equilibrium if the domestic wage setting is credibly centralized and the unemployment benefit is sufficiently high (low), each instance arising for a different range of — intermediate — FC values. If however the FC values are sufficiently high, then the centralized structure of wage setting along with a low enough unemployment benefit will deter employment-reducing inward FDI."

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