182 Int. J. Education Economics and Development, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2018 Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. A look at foreign direct investment in China: 2004–2012 Amitabh S. Dutta* Bisk College of Business, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, USA Email: adutta@fit.edu *Corresponding author Shama Patel 1285 Dusty Pine Drive, Apopka, FL 32704, USA Email: shamapatel19@gmail.com Enrique M. Perez Bisk College of Business, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, USA Email: eperez@fit.edu Abstract: This study examines the foreign direct investment (FDI) in China over the period 2004–2012. The motivation behind the study was to see if the 2008 financial crisis had an impact on the levels of FDI being allocated to China from different countries. The data was divided into two sub-periods of four years each, 2004–2007 and 2009–2012. There was FDI data available for 16 geographic areas around the globe. This study finds that 12 of 16 regions/countries tested show no significant differences in their average pre- and post-2008 levels of FDI in China. Developing economies as a whole, the regions of East Asia and South East Asia and the country of Singapore all show significantly higher levels of FDI in China after the global financial meltdown. Keywords: foreign direct investment; FDI; China; international capital flows. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Dutta, A.S., Patel, S. and Perez, E.M. (2018) ‘A look at foreign direct investment in China: 2004–2012’, Int. J. Education Economics and Development, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp.182–192. Biographical notes: Amitabh S. Dutta has an undergraduate degree in statistics from the University of Bombay, an MBA from Wake Forest University, and received his PhD in Finance from The University of Tennessee at Knoxville. His areas of research include debt and dividend policy, mutual fund and hedge fund performance, and international capital flows. His most recent publication looks at accounting information comparability and the cost of debt capital for Chinese firms listed on the Shenzhen and Shanghai A-share markets.