Foreign Direct Investment Inflows,Economic Growth,and Trade Balances: The Experience of the New Members of the European Union

The study examines the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth and trade balances of 10 emerging economies in Europe before they joined the European Union. This article uses the Granger causality test to investigate the link between FDI inflows and economic growth for the countries under study. The findings show that gross domestic product growth has a unilateral Granger-cause on FDI inflows for 9 of 10 emerging European economies. However, the results did not show FDI inflows Granger-causing the changes in economic growth of any of the 10 countries. Furthermore, FDI inflows had no or negative effects on trade balances of the majority of the emerging European nations. The policy implications of this study are that host governments in emerging economies must carefully evaluate spillover effects of FDI inflows on their economies before offering significant incentive packages to lure multinational enterprises into their countries.     

The relationship between Co2 emissions,energy consumption,economic growth and FDI: the case of Turkey

This study investigates the relevance of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in Turkey for the period 1974–2010 using carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, energy consumption, economic growth, and foreign direct investment (FDI) variables. The long-run equilibrium relationship among CO₂ emissions, energy consumption, economic growth, and FDI is revealed using the bounds test. The error correction model under autoregressive-distributed lag mechanism suggests that CO₂ emissions converge to their long-run equilibrium level by a 49.2% speed of adjustment every year by the contribution of energy consumption, economic growth, and FDI. The Toda–Yamamoto (1995 Toda, H.Y., and T. Yamamoto. 1995. “Statistical Inference in Vector Autoregressions with Possibly Integrated Processes.” Journal of Econometrics 66 (1): 225–250.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) causality test results imply that carbon emissions and FDI, energy consumption, and CO₂ emissions have bidirectional causal relationships. On the other hand, there are unidirectional causal relationships running from economic growth and energy consumption to FDI and from economic growth to energy consumption. Our findings provide evidence of the validity of the pollution haven hypothesis, in addition to the scale effect, and the EKC in the case of Turkey.     

FDI and Growth: What Causes What?

This paper examines the causal relationship between FDI and economic growth by using an innovative econometric methodology to study the direction of causality between the two variables. We apply our methodology, based on the Toda‐Yamamoto test for causality, to time‐series data covering the period 1969–2000 for three developing countries, namely Chile, Malaysia and Thailand, all of them major recipients of FDI with a different history of macroeconomic episodes, policy regimes and growth patterns. Our empirical findings clearly suggest that it is GDP that causes FDI in the case of Chile and not vice versa, while for both Malaysia and Thailand, there is a strong evidence of a bi‐directional causality between the two variables. The robustness of the above findings is confirmed by the use of a bootstrap test employed to test the validity of our results.     

The Causal Relationship Between Information and Communication Technology and Foreign Direct Investment

This paper investigates the simultaneous causal relationship between investments in information and communication technology (ICT) and flows of foreign direct investment (FDI), with reference to its implications on economic growth. For the empirical analysis we use data from 23 major countries with heterogeneous economic development for the period 1976–99. Our causality test results suggest that there is a causal relationship from ICT to FDI in developed countries, which means that a higher level of ICT investment leads to an increase inflow of FDI. ICT may contribute to economic growth indirectly by attracting more FDI. Contrarily, we could not find significant causality from ICT to FDI in developing countries. Instead, we have partial evidence of opposite causality relationship: the inflow of FDI causes further increases in ICT investment and production capacity.     

Economic growth,trade and capital flows: A causal analysis of post-liberalised South Africa

Development Finance and EconometricsThis paper investigates the causal relationships between trade, capital inflows and economic growth in post-liberalised South Africa over the period from 1995 to 2011. The results show that economic growth in South Africa is driven primarily by trade and fixed investment rather than by capital inflows. However, the relationship between economic growth and imports is bidirectional, and thus economic growth in South Africa is associated to a greater extent with the export-led growth hypothesis than the import-led growth hypothesis. In addition, the results find in favour of growth-led FDI rather than FDI-led growth, and that portfolio inflows rather than FDI are integrated into the country's trade-led growth dynamics.     

State policies and the challenges in attracting foreign direct investment: A review of the Ghana experience

Foreign direct investment (FDI) to low‐income countries has not only received much publicity in the past two decades due to its economic importance, but its overall flow to these countries has also significantly increased in both relative and absolute terms. However, only a few sub‐Saharan African countries have been successful in attracting significant FDI flows. This article examines Ghana's experience in attracting FDI. Thus, the main thrust of this article is threefold. First, it evaluates the main economic policy adopted by the government from 1981 to 2002 to reverse the post‐independence economic decline. Second, it examines how the policies facilitated the attraction of FDI inflows to Ghana. Finally, it reviews some of the problems that impede the attraction of value‐added FDI inflows to Ghana. Qualitative analysis of available evidence reveals that the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), the main economic reform policy, has led to an increase in the number of multinationals investing in Ghana. This article argues that Ghana's SAP has had some degree of success in many areas, including the lowering of inflation; promotion of an environment of financial stability; elimination of the licensing requirement; the opening of previously closed sectors; removal of tariff barriers that prohibit FDI inflows; abolishing exchange controls; and reducing opportunities for the foreign exchange black market. In spite of the developments, there are still serious challenges that hamper the attraction of FDI inflows into the country. This article contends that there is the need for urgent action to tackle these challenges. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

广东省能源消费、经济增长与FDI互动关系的研究——基于VAR模型

本文运用格兰杰因果关系检验与脉冲响应方法,分别对广东省能源消费、经济增长与外商直接投资(FDI)之间的因果与动态关系进行了深入研究。研究发现:广东省经济高速增长推动了能源的高消耗,而FDI的大量流入又直接推动着经济高速增长,FDI通过经济增长间接促进了能源高消耗。对于FDI波动,经济增长与能源消费将有较强同向波动,FDI对能源消费具有节约效应,FDI在广东省经济发展中占据重要地位。     

Associating Turkey with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: A costly (re‐) engagement?

Policy debate on the implications of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) for Turkey has focused almost exclusively on “how” Turkey can/will take part in a forthcoming transatlantic deal. Turkey's association with a TTIP has largely been conceived as an inevitable and beneficial policy choice to re‐engage Ankara with the Atlantic alliance and emerging transatlantic trade framework. The arguments for extending TTIP to Turkey have mostly been built upon a conventional understanding of preferential trade agreements. The debate has not provided a comprehensive assessment of costs and benefits for Turkey's exclusion from or joining TTIP as it dismissed multiple dimensions of the “deep integration” agenda which underpined the transatlantic talks. This paper intends to contribute to the “why” debate with a thorough analysis of critical issues on the transatlantic agenda by evaluating economic and policy implications of TTIP both for exclusion and association scenarios together with associated compliance and adjustment costs.     

Service Quality Perceptions of Foreign Direct Investors

ABSTRACT

In this article, the potential disparity between foreign direct investment (FDI) clients' service quality expectations and the actual service experienced (Gap 5) and how these impacts FDI inflows are investigated. Methodological triangulation encompassing quan-titative and qualitative methods is used. Contrary to the quantitative findings, the qualitative findings indicate that Gap 5 exists among the FDI clients. This is the first time the service quality model (performance-based construct) has been used to study FDI issues. Rather than applying the predominant “inside-out” mindset, the model adopts an “outside-in” mindset that uses perceived (actual) service as a reference point for clients' evaluation of service quality.     

Poland's Investment Development Path and Industry Structure of FDI Inflows and Outflows

ABSTRACT

This study explores changes in industry composition of FDI inflows to and outflows from Poland, using the conceptual framework of J. Dunning's model of the investment development path (IDP). The data time frame used (from 1996 to 2005) allows for identification of significant changes in FDI structure as Poland moves through stage 2 of her IDP. The leading position of the manufacturing sector in both FDI inflows and outflows is replaced by services (especially financial and trade). The last section presents policy implications focused on measures designed to redress the imbalance between the still much larger inflows than outflows of FDI.     

Determinants of FDI inflows to Arab economies

The paper studies location determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) to 16 Arab economies over the period from 1984 to 2012, by employing Arellano–Bover/Blundell–Bond linear dynamic panel data estimation. We find that market size, trade openness, preferential trade agreements and financial development have significant positive impact on FDI inflows to Arab economies. FDI in Arab economies appears to be resource seeking since the total oil supply variable is positive and significant. The paper finds that better institutions and educated labour force may play a key role in attracting FDI inflows. We suggest that Arab economies should sequence their economic policy measures with the institutional ones, beginning with a focus on privatization and trade liberalization, and subsequently shift to improvement in economic growth.     

Exports and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: New insights from innovative econometric methods

This study examined the relationship between exports and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. It employed innovative econometric methods, including the Fourier ADF with structural break test, a comparative analysis of three causality tests and a rolling causality test procedure. The findings suggested that there was a statistically significant relationship between exports and economic growth in several Sub-Saharan countries. However, the causal linkages between exports and economic growth in these countries were found to be weak and unstable. These empirical results have some notable policy implications.     

FDI,Trade, and Growth Dynamics: New Evidence from the Post-Reform India

This article has two aims: first, review the related literature on the relationship among Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Trade, and Economic Growth, and second, empirically examine the linkage between these variables. Our review of the literature indicates that despite a large volume of literature on the relationship among these variables, the direction of causality among them is far from over. Therefore, after observing a gap in the empirical literature, especially for developing economies, we investigate the linkage by using a Vector Autoregression (VAR) model applying the Ganger non-causality test of Toda and Yamamoto (1995) for the period 1991Q3 to 2006Q3. The evidence shows that there is bidirectional causality (two-way feedback) between FDI and economic growth. At the same time, there is also a unidirectional causality exists between exports and FDI, which runs from the former to the latter. Results of the test of causality between FDI and imports indicate the presence of a two-way feedback relationship between the variables.     

Impact of foreign direct investment volatility on economic development in the Indian subcontinent

Using annual data over forty years from 1975 to 2014, this study investigates the gross domestic product (GDP) growth and the conditional volatility of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian subcontinent. The study reports the rising trends of both FDI and GDP and documents that the greater‐than‐expected FDI due to innovative shocks or policy innovations positively influences conditional volatility of FDI which, in turn, positively contributes to the economic growth/development. The conditional volatility used in the study is the variance derived from the diagnostically selected exponential GARCH (EGARCH) model. The study also reports the causality of both the FDI and its volatility across borders. More specifically, it reports bidirectional causality of FDI between India and Pakistan but unidirectional causality from Bangladesh to both India and Pakistan. It further documents that this volatility is persistent in all the economies and that it spillovers from both India and Pakistan to Bangladesh. The evidence attributes the economic development in the Indian subcontinent to the economic or policy innovations in attracting FDI. The findings of this study thus contribute to the literature by documenting the contrasting evidence that the volatility along with the trend of FDI contributes to the economic development and by reconciling the contrasting evidence.     

The impact of civil war on foreign direct investment flows to developing countries

We investigate the impact of civil war on foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to developing countries. We employ a new data-set that disaggregates FDI inflows to primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Second, we control for a richer set of economic and institutional variables that could determine FDI inflows including population, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the degree of trade openness, exchange rate variability, inflation, the governance structure of the host country using International Country Risk Guide data and its regime type using the POLITY autocracy–democracy data. We also address the reverse causality between FDI and conflict and the potential endogeneity of explanatory variables by employing dynamic system generalised method of moments (GMM) techniques in estimation. Our results indicate that primary sector FDI flows to developing countries are not significantly affected by civil war, whereas secondary and tertiary sectors FDI are more sensitive to such outbreak, potentially leading to reversals of existing FDI. Among institutional variables, government stability and control of corruption are more significant compared to regime type, law and order, and bureaucratic quality.     

Effects of cultural institutes on bilateral trade and FDI flows: Cultural diplomacy or economic altruism?

The number of cultural institutes from major developed and developing countries increased significantly in the last twenty years. In this paper, using cross-sectional and panel data analysis on bilateral trade in goods and services, and FDI inflows and outflows, we examine the economic effects of 1,266 cultural institutes from China, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and UK for the period of 1990–2015. The empirical results suggest that cultural institutes have significantly positive trade and FDI enhancing effects, which are persistent over time. However, these effects are most robust only with goods exports and FDI outflows. Furthermore, the economic effects of cultural institutes are not homogenous across destinations and are the strongest for developed rather than developing host countries. There is also significant heterogeneity among cultural institutes with significant differences in their economic effects on different types of bilateral trade and FDI flows.     

Increasing Sub-Saharan Africa's Share of Foreign Direct Investment: Public Policy Challenges,Strategies, and Implications

In this article, the author describes anecdotal predictors of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, which include key indicators of development, governance variables, information infrastructure, and business environment. He also presents the public policy challenges of increasing FDI to Sub-Saharan Africa. Using Porter's 1990 Porter , M. E. ( 1990 ). The competitive advantage of nations . New York : The Free Press .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar] framework of competitive advantage of nations as a backdrop, specific strategies to increase FDI inflows with their implications are offered. Among the suggested strategies and implications are using the “principle of clustering” where demand conditions are favorable, looking outside the traditional inflows of FDI to Africa, establishing carefully monitored export processing zones, expanding regional trading arrangements, working together to change the negative perceptions of the region, and reducing corruption. The article ends with a conclusion and discussion.     

What drives the capital flows into BRICS economies?

Understanding what drives the capital flows has important policy implications for countries in managing the direction and magnitude of such flows. This paper empirically investigates the main drivers of capital flows into the fast‐growing BRICS countries, in the backdrop of their growing inward capital flows. Employing a fully balanced panel for the period 1995–2015, we focus on, among others, the hitherto commonly untested variables: sovereign credit ratings, economic freedom and ease of doing business ranking of these countries. In searching for the relevant interaction and causality among the drivers of capital flows, we employ the panel Granger causality test to arrive at the policy implications. The results suggest that market size is a significant driver of capital flows. In addition to infrastructure, economic freedom in the host countries, ease of doing business ranking and sovereign credit ratings are the main drivers in the long‐run growth of capital flows.     

环境管制与外资区位分布的实证分析——基于中国1985-2004年数据的协整分析与格兰杰因果检验

从理论上看,环境管制与外资区位分布之间的关系一直存在着较大的争议;从实践上看,我国近年来环境污染问题日趋严重,且各地区的环境管制水平呈现出明显的差异。本文通过采用协整分析和格兰杰因果检验,对中国东部、中部和西部地区的环境规制与外资分布之间的关系进行了实证分析,并得出如下结论:东部地区的环境规制与吸引外资之间存在着稳定的正相关关系,而中部地区和西部地区则表现为明显的负相关关系。同时,环境规制不是引起外资变化的格兰杰原因,但外资是引起环境规制变化的格兰杰原因。     

Formal and informal sectors: is there any wage differential?

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this paper is to investigate if a wage difference exists between formal and informal sectors in the case of the Turkish labour market using a sample of wageworkers. To this end, we use data for 2004 and 2009 and a novel definition of the informal sector. On the methodological front, we adopt three alternative decomposition techniques, namely, the Oaxaca-Ransom [(1994). On discrimination and the decomposition of wage differentials. Journal of Econometrics, 61, 5–21] decomposition in the context of mean regression, the Machado and Mata [(2005). Counterfactual decomposition of changes in wage distributions using quantile regression. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 20(4), 445–465] decomposition in the quantile regression framework and the non-parametric decomposition method proposed by Nopo [(2008). Matching as a tool to decompose wage gap. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 90(2), 290–299]. The results reveal the existence of a wage gap between the two sectors. We found education and experience to be key determinants of earnings. The findings of this paper have implications for policies, which might be directed towards developing approaches with a focus on education and experience.