The impact of foreign direct investment on productivity: New evidence for developing countries

We provide new empirical evidence on the relationship between inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and total factor productivity (TFP) growth using cross-country data for 51 developing countries over the period 1984–2010. Our results suggest a weak direct effect of FDI on TFP growth but, after accounting for the roles of human capital and institutions as contingencies in the FDI-TFP growth relationship, we find a robust FDI-induced productivity growth response dependent on these ‘absorptive capacities’. However, the relevance of the human capital contingency effect diminishes when the effect of institutions is also considered, which suggests that improving institutions is relatively more important than human capital development for developing countries to realise productivity gains from FDI.     

Granger causality tests among openness to international trade,human capital accumulation and economic growth in China: 1952–1999

Abstract

This study examines Granger causality among openness to international trade, human capital accumulation and economic growth in China using time series data over the period from 1952 to 1999 and a sub-period, i.e. a period from 1978 to 1999. For the 1952–1999 period, economic growth is found to Granger cause human capital accumulation and not vice versa. For the 1978–1999 period, economic growth and openness to international trade, economic growth and human capital accumulation, and human capital accumulation and openness to international trade are found to have bidirectional Granger causality, respectively. Thus, there is a dynamic relationship among openness to international trade, human capital accumulation and economic growth. The experience of economic reform in China could be an example to other developing countries.     

Financial Openness and the Dutch Disease

This paper studies the relationship between the degree of financial openness and Dutch disease effects of capital inflows in developing countries. The results reveal that an increase in financial openness leads to an appreciation of the real exchange rate. In particular, the study shows that an increase in inflow of foreign direct investments (FDI) results in an appreciation of the real exchange rate in more financially open countries only. The results also suggest that there is a trade‐off between the resource movement effect and the spending effect in more financially open economies following an increase in FDI inflows, such that the more the tradable sector expands relative to the nontradable sector, the greater is the real exchange rate appreciation.     

Dynamic effects of trade openness on financial development

This paper employs the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) approach of Pesaran et al. (1999) to study the dynamic effects of trade openness on financial development. The advantage of the PMG estimator over other dynamic panel econometric techniques is that it allows short-run coefficients, speeds of adjustment and error variances to vary across countries, with cross-country homogeneity restrictions only on long-run parameters. Our results spanning 88 countries over 1960–2005 show that a positive long-run relationship between trade openness and financial development coexists with a negative short-run relationship. But when splitting the data into different income or inflation groups, this finding is observed only in relatively low-income countries or high-inflation economies.     

对外开放与TFP增长：基于中国省际面板数据的经验研究

本文运用DEA的方法，先测算出1986--2003年各省域经济的技术效率、技术进步和TFP增长，然后实证研究人力资本、国际进出口及FDI对三者的影响。结果表明，人力资本和出口对技术效率的提高有正向作用，进口负向影响技术效率，FDI的影响不显著。出口对技术进步和TFP增长有轻微的负向影响，进口对二者具有小幅度的正向促进作用；而人力资本、FDI对技术进步和TFP增长的正向影响要大于进口。综合来看，对外开放能够促进TFP的增长，但是其影响只有人力资本正向效果的十分之一。     

Globalization and income inequality: A panel data econometric approach for the EU27 countries

This paper investigates the relationship between income inequality and globalization, measured with both trade and financial variables. We estimate an econometric model using appropriate panel data techniques for the EU-27 countries over the period 1995–2009. The analysis is also performed at subgroups of countries within the EU27, such as the Core, Periphery, High Technology, and the New EU Member countries. Overall, the results suggest that trade openness exerts an equalizing effect, while financial globalization through FDI, capital account openness and stock market capitalization has been the driving force of inequality in the EU-27 since 1995. The highest contribution to inequality stems from FDI. Although the trade impact remained robust, disparities were observed in the financial globalization effects within a certain group or among country groups. The recent financial crisis led to a significant rise in inequality only in the EU-periphery and the New Member states. The impact from the other control variables was either minor or insignificant.     

Capital flows and economic growth revisited: evidence from five Sub-Saharan African countries

The study examines the differential effects of capital flows on economic growth in five Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 1970–2014. Using the autoregressive distributed lag methodology, the findings show that in the long-run capital flows (i.e. foreign direct investment (FDI), aid, external debt, and remittances) have different effects on economic growth. FDI has a significant positive effect in Burkina Faso and negative effects in Gabon and Niger whereas the impact of debt is negative in all countries. Aid, however, promotes growth in Niger and Gabon whiles it deters growth in Ghana. Remittances, on the other hand, have a significant positive effect in Senegal. Finally, gross capital formation is significant in most of the countries and the impact of trade is mixed. These results suggest that the benefits of capital flows in SSA have been overemphasized.     

外国直接投资是否会带来国际收支危机?

外国直接投资 (FDI)除了能够从资本形成、技术扩散和促进竞争等角度刺激发展中国家的经济增长 ,还会对一国的国际收支产生影响。如果FDI给发展中国家带来的债务负担超过其偿还能力 ,必然会给发展中国家带来国际收支危机。但是 ,由于FDI将同时影响一国的生产、出口和进口 ,因此需要全面地分析其对国际收支的影响。论文构建了一个差分系统 ,考察了FDI通过九种渠道影响东道国国际收支的长期动态效应。结果发现 ,FDI的利润回流虽然最终会超过FDI的净流入 ,但是 ,由于存在FDI的进出口行为 ,FDI对国际收支的净效应并不一定为逆差。在此基础上 ,论文分析了FDI对东道国国际收支的净效应在长期内为逆差还是顺差的条件 ,并讨论了这种差额是否能趋于稳定。论文还根据这两个命题 ,简要考察了FDI对中国国际收支的长期动态影响。     

CO2 emissions,economic growth,energy consumption,trade and urbanization in new EU member and candidate countries: A panel data analysis

This paper investigates the causal relationship between energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, trade openness and urbanization for a panel of new EU member and candidate countries over the period 1992–2010. Panel unit root tests, panel cointegration methods and panel causality tests are used to investigate this relationship. The main results provide evidence supporting the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. Hence, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between environment and income for the sampled countries. The results also indicate that there is a short-run unidirectional panel causality running from energy consumption, trade openness and urbanization to carbon emissions, from GDP to energy consumption, from GDP, energy consumption and urbanization to trade openness, from urbanization to GDP, and from urbanization to trade openness. As for the long-run causal relationship, the results indicate that estimated coefficients of lagged error correction term in the carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, GDP, and trade openness equations are statistically significant, implying that these four variables could play an important role in adjustment process as the system departs from the long-run equilibrium.     

FDI、人力资本与我国技术水平提升——基于DEA与VAR的实证分析

本文在运用数据包络分析(DEA)测算我国1983—2007年全要素生产率的变动情况的基础上,使用基于VAR的Granger因果检验、脉冲响应函数等方法研究外商直接投资(FDI)、人力资本存量与全要素生产率变动之间的动态关系。结果表明:FDI与人力资本存量的提高显著提升了我国全要素生产率水平;FDI与人力资本存量之间存在互为因果关系,且人力资本对FDI的促进作用更强。基于此,本文认为促进人力资本积累、提升技术吸收消化能力,对于引进外资和推动技术进步意义重大。     

Endogenous Financial and Trade Openness

The authors study the endogenous determination of financial and trade openness. They construct a theoretical framework leading to two-way feedbacks between financial and trade openness and identify these feedbacks empirically. They find that one standard deviation increase in commercial openness is associated with a 9.5% increase in de facto financial openness (% of GDP). Similarly, an increase in de facto financial openness has powerful effects on future trade openness. De jure restrictions on capital mobility have only a weak impact on de facto financial openness, while de jure restrictions on the current account have a large adverse effect on commercial openness. The authors investigate the relative magnitudes of these directions of causality using Geweke's (1982 ) decomposition methodology. They conclude that in an era of rapidly growing trade integration, countries cannot choose financial openness independently of their degree of openness to trade. Dealing with greater exposure to turbulence by imposing restrictions on financial flows is likely to be ineffectual.     

Nonlinearity between Trade Openness and Economic Development

This paper utilizes the instrumental variable threshold regressions approach to reassess the trade–development link. It finds evidence that trade openness contributes to uneven development. Greater trade openness tends to have beneficial effects on real development of high‐income countries. For low‐income ones, however, trade openness appears to influence real income in a significant and negative way. The data also reveal that greater trade openness has a positive effect on capital accumulation, productivity growth, and financial development in high‐income countries, but a negative impact in low‐income ones.     

FDI,SECTORAL OUTPUT AND REAL EXCHANGE RATE DYNAMICS UNDER FINANCIAL OPENNESS

This paper adopts an alternative approach to the study of the impact of capital inflow on the real exchange rate by foremost, analysing the effect of FDI inflow on the ratio of tradables to nontradables, and then estimating the relationship between the tradable‐nontradable ratio and the real exchange rate, while accounting for the role of financial openness. Based on data for a group of developing countries, the findings show that an increase in FDI inflow is associated with a decrease in the tradable‐nontradable ratio, and that an increase in the tradable‐nontradable ratio leads to a depreciation of the real exchange rate; this effect being greater with an increase in financial openness. This suggests that an increase in FDI inflow could result in an expansion of the nontradable sector, which would be associated with a greater appreciation of the real exchange rate under a higher level of financial openness.     

Financial Development and Economic Activity in Advanced and Developing Open Economies: Evidence from Panel Cointegration

This study considers the effects of financial development on output in a panel cointegration framework, focusing on the implications of trade and financial openness. Our analysis indicates that after controlling for cross‐sectional dependence, the typical relationship between finance and output does not hold in the long run. This relationship, however, is re‐established once we account for economic openness. While trade openness emerges as more important for developing countries, financial openness is more important for advanced economies. In the long run, causality runs from financial development to output in the advanced economies, while in developing economies causality is bidirectional. There is no short‐run causality between financial development and output, however.     

Financial development and openness: Evidence from panel data

This paper addresses the empirical question of whether trade and financial openness can help explain the recent pace in financial development, as well as its variation across countries in recent years. Utilising annual data from developing and industrialised countries and dynamic panel estimation techniques, we provide evidence which suggests that both types of openness are statistically significant determinants of banking sector development. Our findings reveal that the marginal effects of trade (financial) openness are negatively related to the degree of financial (trade) openness, indicating that relatively closed economies stand to benefit most from opening up their trade and/or capital accounts. Although these economies may be able to accomplish more by taking steps to open both their trade and capital accounts, opening up one without the other could still generate gains in terms of banking sector development. Thus, our findings provide only partial support to the well known Rajan and Zingales hypothesis, which stipulates that both types of openness are necessary for financial development to take place.     

Does R&D,human capital and FDI matter for TFP in OECD countries?

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the interplay between research and development (R&D), human capital (HC), foreign direct investment (FDI) and total factor productivity (TFP) in OECD countries. We divide the sample into two sub-groups; the European and the non-European states so as to account for underlying country heterogeneity. The analysis follows a panel data approach over the period 1995–2015, taking into account the modelling on non-stationarity, long-run relationships and short-run dynamics with a panel VAR. Both R&D and HC have a positive effect on TFP, whilst FDI has a positive and significant effect only in the case of non-European countries. Moreover, the contribution of R&D is higher than that of HC and FDI in all cases. Thus, based on these findings, policymakers should design and implement policies to increase resources invested in R&D, with a consistent ongoing spending review, to attract foreign direct investment, especially for the majority of the European and some of the non-European countries and to improve education system on a more productive innovation and research base.     

Financial openness and capital mobility: a dynamic panel analysis

Does unrestricted control on the movement of capital increase capital mobility? Theoretically, the answer is yes. This paper uses the Feldstein–Horioka savings–investment methodology to examine the impact of financial openness on the degree of capital mobility in 104 countries. Our estimates suggest that financial openness has increased capital mobility in developing countries, while its effect is statistically insignificant in OECD countries. This also implies that a developing country with more financial openness can have more access to external capital markets for borrowings. Foreign aid also appears to supplement domestic savings for investment in developing countries. In line with the previous findings, our study also confirms that capital is more mobile for developing countries.     

Drivers of the real effective exchange rates in high and upper‐middle income countries

This paper revisits the nexus between real effective exchange rate (REER) and total factor productivity (TFP) by controlling for trade openness, financial development and natural resources rents. We use a sample of 60 high‐income and upper‐middle income countries over the period 1995–2015 and employ the GMM estimation framework. Our results advance the empirical knowledge on the drivers of REER by providing robust evidence that the impact of TFP is not uniform across different country clusters. We find that in high‐income countries, increasing productivity causes the REER to depreciate hence becoming more trade competitive while the opposite is true for upper‐middle income countries. Furthermore, financial development and natural resources rents have no meaningful impact in the case of upper‐middle income countries but retain a significant effect in high‐income countries. Trade openness plays a key role in explaining the variation in REER in both country clusters.     

Do R&D activities matter for productivity? A regional spatial approach assessing the role of human and social capital

We estimate the long-run effects of Research and Development (R&D) activities on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) across the Spanish regions during 1980–2007. We use panel data cointegration methods and control for spatial externalities linked to human and social capital. Our empirical results, robust to different specifications and additional control variables, show a significant direct effect of public R&D capital on productivity. No significant results are observed for private R&D capital. In contrast, the effect of patents is highly significant but proves to be small. Furthermore, Spain has greatly benefited from importing technology from leading countries. Spatial spillovers are crucial in explaining long-run productivity for the case of Spain. Human and social capital exert direct positive impacts, however, their effects are geographically bounded and negative spatial spillovers offset direct outcomes. Overall TFP increases when neighbouring territories engage in R&D activities.     

International Productivity Differences and the Roles of Domestic Investment,FDI and Trade

This paper calculates Theil's entropy index to measure the extent of productivity differences across 92 countries for the period from 1970 to 2003. While there is evidence of increasing differences in productivity across these countries, we observe different patterns when we group the countries by income levels. These differences seem to be decreasing among middle income developing and developed countries, whereas they seem to be widening among low and high income developing countries. The results of our multivariate time series analysis also suggest that FDI increases productivity differences among low and high income developing countries, whereas GDI reduces these differences among low income countries in the long-run. Granger causality test results indicate that while an increase in GDI leads to a decline in growth of trade, a higher growth of trade appears to be important for attracting FDI to middle income countries. Furthermore, a reduction in productivity differences and a higher FDI growth lead to higher growth of trade in developed countries.