Do channels of financial integration matter for FDI’s impact on growth? Empirical evidence using a panel

This paper adds to the debate on the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth which suggest that the link between FDI and economic growth is rather the consequence of both FDI and growth responding endogenously to economic integration. We investigate if the impact of FDI on growth is dependent on the channel of integration used to attract FDI. We use four different indexes of economic integration including Trade Openness, Chinn-Ito, and KOF and our newly constructed index of financial integration. We employ these four indexes to investigate the role played by economic integration in linking FDI and growth. We use a panel consisting of 134 developing countries and data spanning the period 1989-2017 estimated using the generalized method of moments (GMM) technique. The results show that FDI is an important determinant of growth. The results also suggest that at least some of the integration variables do matter and work as channels to attract FDI leading to growth. However, after stratifying countries by income level, we also find that integration matters mainly for high income countries. Integration variables for other income groups do not show much significance. These are interesting results and may have important policy implications.     

Autocracy,Democracy, and FDI Inflows to the Developing Countries

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between political regimes and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to the developing countries for a sample of 134 countries over the 1983–2002 period. Using two categorical measures of regime type and three different measures of FDI, this study finds that, regardless of the measures of regime type, democracies are not significantly associated with either FDI in level or FDI as a ratio to GDP; democracy is positively related to a higher level of per capita FDI, but this result is not robust to alternative measures of political regime. Taken as a whole, there is no evidence of a systematic relationship between democracy and FDI inflows. This result suggests that being a democracy does not help attract higher levels of FDI.     

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.     

Foreign investments in real estate,economic growth and property prices: evidence from OECD countries

The last two decades have witnessed a growth in foreign direct investments (FDI) in the real estate sector in most of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries. It is argued that FDI in the real estate sector may improve economic growth in recipient economies. On the other hand, property prices have increased considerably in OECD countries in recent years and some argue that FDI in real estate is one of the driving forces of high property prices in these countries. The purpose of this study is to analyze the interrelationship between FDI in the real estate sector, economic growth, and property prices while controlling for interest rate and inflation. We use observations from a set of OECD countries for the period between 1995 and 2008. The dynamic interrelationship is analyzed by applying a panel cointegration technique. Our empirical results show that FDI in real estate do not cause property price appreciations and also do not contribute to economic growth in OECD countries in the short run and the long run.     

Democracy in the neighborhood and foreign direct investment

The determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) have been extensively studied. Even though there is extensive research in the area, most of it is based on analyzing the effects of host country characteristics on FDI flows, and yet there is little research on how neighboring country characteristics play a role in facilitating FDI flows to host countries. This paper analyzes the association between the democracy level in neighboring countries and FDI flows to host countries. Using bilateral FDI flows from the OECD countries, with a large host country sample, we find that countries surrounded by democratic countries attract higher FDI flows. Furthermore, we find evidence that countries that are surrounded by neighboring countries with good institutions tend themselves to have better institutions, experience lower civil conflict, and have higher political stability and hence indirectly attract higher FDI flows. Our findings suggest that if neighboring countries act in such way as to become more democratic, FDI flows to these countries would be higher since not only does improving the quality of democracy attract more FDI inflows, but also being surrounded by neighboring advanced democratic countries will also lead to higher FDI flows to them.     

西部地区外国直接投资与经济增长关系的实证分析

本文运用协整和因果关系检验理论,对西部地区从1979年到2005年的外国直接投资与经济增长数据进行实证检验.结果发现二者之间存在长期稳定的关系,并且当滞后两期时,经济增长是外国直接投资的格兰杰原因,而外国直接投资并不是经济增长的格兰杰原因.在协整分析的基础上建立了误差修正模型,分别从长期和短期对两者之间的关系进行了定量分析,并给出了结论和政策建议.     

National levels of corruption and foreign direct investment

We model the relationship between bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) and the level of corruption in multinational firms’ (MCNs’) home and host countries. We construct and test a model of bilateral FDI between countries that differ in their levels of corruption. FDI is affected negatively both by the level of corruption in the host country and by differences in home- and host-country corruption. Our model emphasizes that MNCs develop skills for dealing with home-country corruption, and these skills become a competitive advantage in similarly corrupt host countries. We test the model using data on bilateral FDI stocks among a large number of home and host countries, using a variety of specifications and estimation strategies to provide robustness. Our results show that the effects of host-country corruption and of differences in corruption levels between home and host countries are statistically and economically significant.     

Tax Policies,Regional Trade Agreements and Foreign Direct Investment: A Welfare Analysis

In this paper, we develop a partial equilibrium three‐country model to examine the relationship between regional trade agreements (RTAs) and foreign direct investment (FDI) in an environment with double taxation. Our analysis shows that FDI is welfare‐improving for at least one or both of the two regional countries if wage asymmetry is significantly large. FDI and an RTA are also welfare‐improving for the high‐wage country and the region if the wage differential is not small. We also examine the role of repatriation taxes in affecting the determination of firm location under an RTA. Our results suggest that the signing of an RTA may induce relocation from the high‐wage country to the low‐wage country unless an increase in the repatriation tax rate also occurs.     

Foreign direct investment and growth in India: a cointegration approach

The two-way link between foreign direct investment and growth for India is explored using a structural cointegration model with vector error correction mechanism. The existence of two cointegrating vectors between GDP, FDI, the unit labour cost and the share of import duty in tax revenue is found, which captures the long run relationship between FDI and GDP. A parsimonious vector error correction model (VECM) is then estimated to find the short run dynamics of FDI and growth. Our VECM model reveals three important features: (a) GDP in India is not Granger caused by FDI; the causality runs more from GDP to FDI; (b) trade liberalization policy of the Indian government had some positive short run impact on the FDI flow; and (c) FDI tends to lower the unit labour cost suggesting that FDI in India is labour displacing.     

WHAT MAKES INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL FLOWS PROMOTE ECONOMIC GROWTH? AN INTERNATIONAL CROSS‐COUNTRY ANALYSIS

This paper re‐examines the relationship between international capital flows and economic growth within the context of various ‘conditional factors’ that possibly have the potential to influence such relationships. It achieves this by employing panel data for 80 countries that cover 1976–2007. International capital inflow is broken down into foreign direct investments (FDI) and foreign portfolio investments (FPI). We find interesting evidence that only FDI has a positive effect on growth and that FPI has an unfavorable, if not negative, effect on growth. The conditional variables of banking liberalization, high‐income level, twin crises, lower corruption, and human capital mitigate the positive impacts of FDI on growth. In contrast, the middle‐income level and good shareholder protection have a positive effect. As concerns FPI, the level of financial liberalization, being in a Latin American region, the wealth of countries, and market governance all influence the way that FPI affects growth, whereas the conditional variables of twin crises and human capital do not influence the effect of FPI on economic growth.     

Foreign direct investment,economic freedom and economic growth: International evidence

In this paper, we investigate the systemic link between economic freedom, foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth in a panel of 85 countries. Our empirical results, based on the generalized method-of-moment system estimator, reveal that FDI by itself has no direct (positive) effect on output growth. Instead, the effect of FDI is contingent on the level of economic freedom in the host countries. This means the countries promote greater freedom of economic activities gain significantly from the presence of multinational corporations (MNCs).     

How important is employment protection legislation for Foreign Direct Investment flows in Central and Eastern European countries?1

In this article we investigate empirically the importance of labour market conditions and in particular the role of employment protection legislation as determinants of bilateral Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). We find that FDI flows are significantly higher in countries with relatively low unit labour costs. We also find that employment protection legislation does not exert a statistically significant impact on FDI flows. Our results are consistent with the interpretation that transition economies attract FDI via low production costs whereas indirect costs related to the rigidity of the labour market are less relevant.     

Does domestic financial development enhance the linkages between foreign direct investment and economic growth?

The study examines the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), financial development, and economic growth in a panel of 95 developed and developing countries from 1983 to 2006. The study moves away from the traditional cross-sectional analysis, and focuses on more direct evidence of the channels via which FDI might help or retard economic growth. Using generalized method of moment (GMM) panel data analysis, we find strong evidence of a positive relationship between FDI inflows into a country and its economic performance. We also find evidence that domestic financial system is a significant prerequisite for FDI to have a positive effect on economic growth. Policy implications are clear. Effort should be made to reform and improve the development of domestic financial system in order to benefit more from the presence of FDI.     

Foreign Direct Investment Inflows and Economic Growth: The Case of Korea

The current study examines the relationship between FDI inflows and economic growth of Korea and tests the Bhagwati hypothesis which says that FDI inflow is more beneficial to economic growth in an open trade regime in a multivariate framework. Unlike previous works on the concerned hypothesis, a small‐sample cointegration test is applied to the time‐series data. There is no evidence of cointegration among the variables. The Granger causality test results show that, although FDI inflows do not cause per capita real GDP, the latter is revealed to cause the former when the economic crisis dummy variable is included. There is a unidirectional short‐run causality from domestic investment to per capita real GDP growth rate. The case of Korea does not support the Bhagwati hypothesis.     

影响中国电子行业出口决定因素的经验分析

本文利用中国电子工业子行业面板数据实证分析1999—2002年期间该行业出口的决定因素,特别是外商直接投资(FDI)的作用。我们发现FDI尤其是来自港澳台的FDI和规模经济对出口有正向作用。我们同时发现国有资本份额与出口负向相关,而资本密集度、研发和人力资本并不是影响中国电子行业出口的重要因素,表明中国的电子企业大多仍处于国际产品分工链的低端。本文有两个原创性贡献:第一是区分不同国别(地区)FDI对中国电子产品出口影响的差异,并发现港澳台地区资本较西方国家资本对中国电子产品出口影响更大;第二是发现劳动力成本水平因素影响FDI对出口作用程度的大小。这些结果具有重要的政策涵义。     

产业集聚与经济增长质量——基于全球82个国家和地区面板数据的实证分析

本文通过五个维度构建了国家层面的经济增长质量指标体系,采用熵值法测算了全球82个国家和地区的经济增长质量指数,并在此基础上实证研究了产业集聚与经济增长质量的关系。研究发现：制造业集聚与服务业集聚水平的提高有助于改善一国的经济增长质量,但两者对经济增长质量的影响渠道有所不同。服务业集聚对经济增长质量的影响在不同类型国家之间存在异质性,即服务业集聚程度的增加能够明显改善非OECD国家和地区的经济增长质量,但对OECD国家和地区的经济增长质量影响不显著。此外,FDI对制造业集聚与一国经济增长质量的关系以及对服务业集聚与一国经济增长质量的关系,分别具有正向调节效应和负向调节效应,而人力资本水平对制造业集聚和服务业集聚与一国经济增长质量的关系均具有正向调节效应。本文的研究结论对于如何制定相关产业政策以推动经济高质量发展具有重要的参考价值。     

FDI、对外贸易与经济增长的协整性研究——以山东省为例

关于利用外资、进出口贸易与经济增长关系的研究一直以来备受关注,但近年来的研究大多致力于两者间关系的独立性研究,其结果往往会使得理论与实证研究的解释力受到影响。对于多个同阶序列变量之间是否存在长期稳定的均衡关系的研究,协整理论具有重要的应用,其既可充分利用信息资源,还有效避免了“伪回归”问题。另外鉴于不同区域问经济发展模式、发展水平的差异性,各经济要素之间的关系也不尽相同,本文采用山东省1984～2007年间24年的统计数据,对该省的外商直接投资、进出口贸易与经济增长之间的相互关系进行了协整性检验和误差修正模型分析,总结得到有关结论：山东省利用外资、进出口贸易与其经济增长之间存在长期均衡关系,但具有区别于其他地区的自身特点。最后,针对山东经济的协调发展提出了若干政策建议。     

It matters where you go: Outward foreign direct investment and multinational employment growth at home

How does outward foreign direct investment (FDI) affect employment growth of the multinational corporations (MNCs) in the home country? Does the impact of outward investment differ by the level of development of the destination country of the FDI? Using a difference-in-difference approach, we assess the impact of starting to invest in less-advanced countries compared with investing in more-advanced countries. To obtain suitable control groups in each case, we use the propensity score method to select national firms that ex post did not take the investment decisions that we study even though ex ante they would have been equally likely to. We find that moving to less-advanced countries decreases a company's employment growth rate especially in the short run. On the other hand, moving to more-advanced countries does not consistently affect employment growth in any significant way. Including investment decisions of established multinationals in the estimation somewhat weakens but does not overturn this conclusion.     

Foreign Direct Investment Outflows and Business‐cycle Fluctuations*

This paper investigates business‐cycle effects for a country’s foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows. Ordinary least squares and panel regressions show that volatility in economic growth has a negative and significant impact on FDI outflows. Furthermore, we find different types of shocks have asymmetric impacts on FDI outflows. In other words, fluctuations of the same magnitude in a boom and a recession have different effects on FDI outflows. This relationship is more evident in OECD countries. We also include exchange rate volatility, lagged business‐cycle measure, and control for potential endogeneity problems as robustness checks. Our findings are robust across different specifications.     

International migration,foreign direct investment,and development stage in developing economies

The existing empirical results on the relationship between FDI and migration are rather mixed. This study reevaluates, both theoretically and empirically, how inward FDI relates to emigration in developing countries. Our model illustrates that the relationship between inward FDI and emigration flows depends on the development stage of a developing country, that is, there is a positive association between inward FDI and emigration flows for relatively less‐developed countries but a negative association between these two variables for relatively developed countries. We confirm the empirical validity of our model prediction using the panel data of 21 OECD and 51 non‐OECD countries during the period from 2003 to 2012. Our results argue that as economic development proceeds in a developing country, the home effect of inward FDI associated with intensified labor demand would dominate the linkage effect that induces the brain drain problem through enhancing the socioeconomic ties with migrant networks.