DIRECT FOREIGN INVESTMENTS AT EUROPEAN LEVEL. BIBLIOMETRIC AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Taking into consideration the current background and the challenges that the European economy is facing regarding the increasing levels of energy independence and climate neutrality achievement with the aim of increasing the well-being of the European population and implementing post-pandemic resilience programs, we believe that an important factor in achieving these goals is provided by direct foreign investments (DFI). For the economy to become efficient both at micro and macroeconomic levels, it is necessary to ensure its stability by attracting a large volume of DFI that will lead to sustainable economic growth, stabilization of inflation at several percentage points per year and the development and modernization of the real economy and public infrastructure. The research methodology implied the elaboration of a bibliometric analysis with a focus on a quantitative research method, in the form of an inventory of the previously published activity in the foreign direct investments field, elaborated by querying the database from the Web of Science platform. The query determined the display of a number of 101 scientific documents existing in the database, which contain the English phrase "foreign investments" in the title, abstract or keywords of the papers. The query was carried out on the 6th of July, 2023 and assumed the inclusion of publications from the past 6 years, 2017 - 2023, including articles published in EU countries and Great Britain. The results of the research confirm the moderate scientific interest in this field, showing that the data contained in the WOS have a Hirsch index of 15.