The effects of foreign direct investment on private domestic investment: evidence from developing countries

The main objective of this study is to make a contribution to the empirical literature of investment by examining the effects of FDI inflows on private investment in developing host countries. We employ panel data for 91 developing host countries over the period 1970–2000 and estimate our model by a means of system generalized method of moments. The results show that FDI stimulates private domestic investment which supports the “crowd-in-hypothesis”. Moreover, after grouping countries based on their level of income, we find that the positive effects of FDI on private investment in low-income countries depend on the availability of human capital.     

Transaction costs and foreign direct investment in developing countries

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been used by a number of developing countries to build a national competitive advantage in a global economy. Most of the literature on FDI in developing countries has focused on low-cost factors in these countries. But in a global economy where low cost factors are available at various locations around the globe, transaction costs related to the assumptions of "bounded rationality" and "opportunism" are becoming increasingly important in FDI decisions. These assumptions have been applied by researchers over the years to explain major changes in the organizational structure of corporations. This paper incorporates the assumptions of bounded rationality and opportunism to discuss factors that a firm considers in its decision to undertake FDI. A statistical analysis was carried out to test the validity of the arguments presented in the paper.     

The choice of licensing versus direct foreign investment in developing countries

For developing, technology-receiving countries, direct foreign investment is always better than licensing in the short run with sectoral immobility of capital. In the long run with perfect mobility of capital between sectors, the welfare rankings of the two scenarios are dependent upon the amount of domestic capital. The likely case is that the developing country would have a smaller amount of domestic capital than foreign investors, and hence licensing could yield higher national welfare.The authors are indebted to many useful comments of two anonymous referees. The authors, however, are solely responsible for any remaining shortcomings.     

The Feldstein-Horioka puzzle in African countries: A panel cointegration analysis

This paper investigates the Feldstein-Horioka coefficients for 37 African countries using the recently developed Pooled Mean Group (PMG), Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS), and Dynamic OLS (DOLS) panel cointegration techniques. The empirical findings reported in this paper reveal that savings and investment are non-stationary and cointegrated series. The estimated coefficients using FMOLS, DOLS, and PMG are 0.38, 0.58, and 0.36, respectively, for the sample as a whole for the period from 1970 to 2006. These results confirm previous studies' findings that capital was relatively mobile in African countries compared to OECD countries. In addition, our study shows that there are marked differences in savings retention coefficients for different country groups in Africa (CFA franc zone and non-CFA franc zone countries, oil-producing and non-oil-producing countries, civil law and common law countries). These results have some policy implications.     

Governance and foreign direct investment: a panel gravity model approach

This paper investigates the link between governance and foreign direct investment in the case of 14 transition countries by using a panel gravity model approach in two alternative ways. First, the level of governance in the target country is studied. Second, the absolute difference in the governance level between the source and target country is investigated. In both cases the results suggest that the lack of good governance does not deter, in fact it encourages, foreign direct investment.     

The effect of the euro on foreign direct investment

In this paper the recent effect of the European Monetary Union on inward FDI-flows is examined using a difference-in-differences approach. The estimated results show that the introduction of the euro raised inward FDI flows by approximately 16% within the euro area, by approximately 11% to non-members and weakly by around 8% from non-member countries into the euro area. Moreover, the geographical effects of the euro are explored. The results show partial agglomeration tendencies for the euro area. There are also some indications of increased importance of vertical specialization in the sample.     

溢出效应:跨国公司直接投资对东道国企业的重要作用

跨国公司进入东道国后,对当地企业产生重要影响,其技术溢出效应是对当地企业产生影响的重要因素。技术溢出效应既是当地企业从跨国公司获取的一种重要收益,也是跨国公司促进东道国经济增长的重要机制。经济学家定义的技术溢出,具有外部经济性质。就跨国公司引起的技术溢出效应来讲,是指跨国公司进入当地市场,引起当地企业的生产率或生产效率提高,而跨国公司又不能完全内部化此类收益。跨国公司对当地企业的作用主要表现在以下几个方面的溢出效应。一、后向关联效应的作用跨国公司与当地供应商、分包商、客户的实质性交易可产生关联溢出效应,…     

Financial structure,productivity, and risk of foreign direct investment

This study investigates how heterogeneous firms choose their lenders when they raise external finance for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and how the choice of financing structure affects FDI activities. We establish an asymmetric information model to analyze why certain firms use private bank loans while others use public bonds to finance foreign production. The hidden information is the productivity shock to FDI. Banks are willing to monitor the risk of FDI, while bondholders are not; hence, banks act as a costly middleman that enables firms to avoid excessive risk. We show that firms’ productivity levels, the riskiness of FDI, and the relative costs of bank finance and bond finance are three key determinants of the firm’s financing choice. Countries with higher productivity, higher bank costs, or investment in less risky destinations, use more bond finance than bank finance. These results are supported by evidence from OECD countries.     

The productivity effect of government capital in developing and industrialized countries

This paper uses an aggregate production function to examine the effect of government capital formation on growth of labour productivity in an annual panel of 12 developing and 12 OECD economies covering the period 1976–1989. The results from a pooled model of all 24 countries indicate that contribution of government capital to labour productivity is positive and statistically significant. This result also holds in separate samples of the industrialized and developing economies where we find that, while there are productivity differentials between the two types of economies with respect to private capital, there are no differences with regards to public capital.     

The impact of bilateral investment treaties on foreign direct investment

This paper uses a large panel of OECD data on stocks of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) to evaluate the impact of bilateral investment treaties. For several variants of the knowledge capital model of multinationals, we demonstrate that investment treaties exert a significant positive effect on outward FDI, if they actually are implemented. Moreover, even signing a treaty has a positive, although lower and in most specifications insignificant, effect on FDI. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (4) (2004) 788–804.     

Economic growth,exports and foreign direct investment in Least Developed Countries: A panel Granger causality analysis

This paper investigates potential Granger causality among the real GDP, real exports and inward FDI in Least Developed Countries for the period between 1970 and 2009. A new panel-data approach developed in Kónya (2006) [Kónya (2006), Exports and growth: Granger causality analysis on OECD countries with a panel data approach, Economic Modelling, 23, 978–992] which is based on SUR systems and Wald tests with country specific bootstrap critical values has been employed. The results indicate direct, one-period-ahead, unidirectional causality from exports to GDP in Haiti, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, and from GDP to exports in Angola, Chad and Zambia. Considering the FDI–Growth nexus, there is evidence of FDI Granger-causing GDP in Benin and Togo, and GDP Granger-causing FDI in Burkina Faso, Gambia, Madagascar and Malawi. While studying EXP–FDI relations, this paper finds that the causality is from FDI to real exports in Benin, Chad, Haiti, Mauritania, Niger, Togo and Yemen, and from real exports to FDI in Haiti, Madagascar, Mauritania, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal and Zambia.     

Outward foreign direct investment and sovereign risks in developing host country

Outward foreign direct investment can affect developing, technology-receiving host countries mainly through tax revenue, technology spillover and the competition effect. With the consideration of these three effects of the outward foreign direct investment on host country, we develop a dynamic game model of interaction between foreign investors and host country from a dynamic perspective, to reveal the dynamic evolution mechanism of the sovereign risk faced by outward foreign direct investment. The result shows that: host governments usually give a specific tax holiday for outward foreign direct investors, and during the period of tax holiday investment decision of investors would be influenced by technology spillover effect, specifically, the greater the technology spillover the slower the growth of investment stock. Once the system reaches a stable state, the host country will impose a tax on multinational corporations. If the equilibrium tax rate of industries or regions which makes it easy to obtain technology spillover is high, then the equilibrium capital stock would be low.     

The effects of foreign direct investment on domestic firms

This paper uses firm‐level panel data to investigate empirically the effects of foreign direct investment on the productivity performance of domestic firms in three emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Romania and Poland. To this end, a unique firm‐level panel dataset is used with detailed information on foreign ownership at the firm level. Two main questions are addressed in the present paper: (1) do foreign firms perform better than their domestic counterparts? (2) do foreign firms generate spillovers to domestic firms? The estimation technique in this paper takes potential endogeneity of ownership, spillovers and other factors into account by estimating a fixed effects model using instrumental variables in the general methods of moment technique for panel data. Only in Poland, do foreign firms perform better than firms without foreign participation. Moreover, for all three countries studied here, I find no evidence of positive spillovers to domestic firms, on average. In contrast, on average, there are negative spillovers to domestic firms in Bulgaria and Romania, while there are no spillovers to domestic firms in Poland. This suggests a negative competition effect that dominates a positive technology effect. JEL classification: D24, F14, O52, P31.     

中国企业对外直接投资:发展状况与问题解析

近年来,中国每年在吸收500—600亿美元的外国直接投资项目,《2003年世界投资报告》显示,去年流入中国的外商直接投资达527亿美元。外资的流入不但促进了中国经济的增长,也给中国企业学习如何对外直接投资提供了绝佳的机会。因为只有更多的有效率的高附加值的中国企业走向国际市     

The role of public policy in closing foreign direct investment gaps: an empirical analysis

Using public policy instruments to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has become standard in most countries, irrespective of their level of development, geographical location or industrial structure. Against this background the paper analyses the suitability of various public policies to attract inward FDI based on a sample of 11 countries and 10 industries from the manufacturing sector over 10 years. For this aim we derive an empirical baseline model of the determinants of inward FDI-stock. From this baseline model FDI-gaps—measured as the difference between the “estimated actual” inward FDI-stock and the “potential” FDI-stock, which could be realized if a certain “best practice policy” were carried out—are derived. Thereby the analysis focuses on business taxation, public research and development expenditures, the information and communication infrastructure endowment, labor costs as well as institutional and skill-related policies. The analysis inter alia reveals the share of each of these location factors in the total industry- and country-level FDI-gap. Moreover, the analysis explores how policy advice depends on the definition of the “best practice policy”.     

Trade openness and child health: a heterogeneous panel cointegration analysis

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we examine the impact of trade openness on child health, based on a cross-country panel data set covering 66 countries for the period 1960–2013. To account for the time-series properties of the data and potential cross-country heterogeneity in the impact of trade openness, the study employs heterogeneous panel cointegration techniques that are robust to omitted variables and endogeneity problems. The results reveal that trade openness and child health are cointegrated, and that trade works to reduce the child mortality rate significantly in the long-run. The results are robust to the methodology and trade openness and child health indicators employed, as well as to the presence of cross-sectional dependence and changes in the sample composition. The findings also suggest that the impact of trade on child health tends to be stronger in countries with better institutional quality, lower corruption, good governance, political stability, and sound policies that promote private sector development.     

The evolution of US outward foreign direct investment in the pacific rim: a cross-time and country analysis

The location determinants of US FDI in the Pacific region of the OECD, i.e. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Korea, are analysed for 1982–1997. The data set allowed two time periods i.e. the 1980s and the 1990s, and two different subgroups, i.e. Australia and New Zealand, and Japan and Korea to be distinguished. Statistical evidence indicates a heterogeneous response of US FDI towards different countries and for different time periods. Factors such as market size, income level and qualified and productive labour exert a significant impact on both the timing and the locational choice of US investors in the region.     

Determinants of foreign direct investment in Spain

This study utilizes panel data as a means of examining the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Spain. Data that are taken in the period 1993–2002 are used in order to estimate the determinants of FDI, at the sectoral level, by differentiating the manufacturing sectors, and at the regional level. The analysis investigates the sectoral, regional and macroeconomic variables that have successfully attracted FDI inflows from those that have not. Empirical results suggest that the differential between labour productivity and the cost of labour has been an important determinant of FDI in Spain during the period 1993–2002. Factors related to demand, the evolution of human capital, the export potential of the sectors and certain macroeconomic determinants that measure the differential between Spain and the European Union average, also play a very important role in attracting flows of FDI. Certain policy issues that are relevant to the results are also discussed.     

关于对外直接投资及其技术转移效应的探讨

技术进步在经济增长中的作用,正随着市场化、工业化和经济全球化而越发重要。在对外投资过程中出现的技术转移,一般是投资国利用其技术优势,通过投资行为向东道国实施先进技术转移。这种现象多发生在发达国家对发展中国家的投资行为当中,我们称之为正向技术转移。然而,随着发展中国家从事对外投资活动的逐渐增多,投资者通过对外投资项目,吸引和学习东道国有关先进技术也是一种技术转移方式。这种现象多发生在发展中国家对外投资行为中,我们称之为逆向技术转移。在这些技术转移中,技术进步收益者在通过投资利益本身直接获取技术核心…     

Foreign direct investment and business cycle co-movements: The panel data evidence

The previous literature has largely overlooked the possible channels through which foreign direct investment (FDI) might influence business cycle synchronization. In this study we analyze the linkages that exist among FDI, trade and industrial dissimilarity in relation to business cycle co-movements using a panel data set taken from 77 pairs of developed countries. The error component three-stage least squares (EC3SLS) estimates from a simultaneous equations model with panel data are shown to be superior to the estimates obtained from single equation models or simultaneous equations models with cross-sectional data. Our results indicate that FDI serves as a channel of international business cycle transmission that is equally important as the channels of trade and monetary policy. On the contrary, industrial dissimilarity is identified as having an indirect impact on the business cycle correlation through trade and FDI. Furthermore, our findings suggest that in our sample FDI is of the horizontal type and tends to substitute for trade.