IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/globus/v24y2023i2p393-410.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Population Longevity Attract Foreign Direct Investments in Developing Countries?

Author

Listed:
  • Ayona Bhattacharjee

Abstract

In a seminal paper, Alsan et al. (2006 , World Development , vol. 34, pp. 613–630) investigate the effect of population health on gross foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to the developing countries. The purpose of this article is to extend their work by exploring the causal effect of population longevity on attracting FDI flows to the middle-income countries over a longer and more recent period, while addressing endogeneity concerns through a novel instrumental variable (IV). The IV is constructed on the hypothesis of cross-country health convergence and generates plausibly exogenous variations in measures of longevity. Our IV estimates suggest that 1-year increase in a measure of longevity is likely to increase annual FDI inflows by at least 3 per cent in the sample of countries considered. Specifically, significant returns appear to emerge from increases in the longevity of the female population. In the current context of resurgence of FDI as a critical source of financial capital to the developing countries and the prevalence of frequent disease outbreaks, these results suggest that good health is not an end but a means to enable countries better integrate with the global markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Ayona Bhattacharjee, 2023. "Does Population Longevity Attract Foreign Direct Investments in Developing Countries?," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 24(2), pages 393-410, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:globus:v:24:y:2023:i:2:p:393-410
    DOI: 10.1177/0972150920915364
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0972150920915364
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0972150920915364?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, Harl E. Ryder and David N. Weil, 1998. "Mortality Decline, Human Capital Investment, and Economic Growth," Working Papers 98-18, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    2. M. Christopher Auld, 2002. "Disentangling the effects of morbidity and life expectancy on labor market outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 471-483, September.
    3. Koji Miyamoto, 2003. "Human Capital Formation and Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Countries," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 211, OECD Publishing.
    4. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson, 2007. "Disease and Development: The Effect of Life Expectancy on Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(6), pages 925-985, December.
    5. Peter Lorentzen & John McMillan & Romain Wacziarg, 2008. "Death and development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 81-124, June.
    6. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1990. "Why Doesn't Capital Flow from Rich to Poor Countries?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 92-96, May.
    7. Clark, Rob, 2011. "World health inequality: Convergence, divergence, and development," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(4), pages 617-624, February.
    8. Noorbakhsh, Farhad & Paloni, Alberto & Youssef, Ali, 2001. "Human Capital and FDI Inflows to Developing Countries: New Empirical Evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1593-1610, September.
    9. Céline Azémar & Rodolphe Desbordes, 2009. "Public Governance, Health and Foreign Direct Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 18(4), pages 667-709, August.
    10. Mr. Kenichi Ueda, 2008. "Life Expectancy and Income Convergence in the World: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis," IMF Working Papers 2008/158, International Monetary Fund.
    11. François Bourguignon & Christian Morrisson, 2002. "Inequality Among World Citizens: 1820-1992," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 727-744, September.
    12. Christopher J. Gerry & Yulia Raskina & Daria Tsyplakova, 2018. "Convergence or Divergence? Life Expectancy Patterns in Post-communist Countries, 1959–2010," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 309-332, November.
    13. Shawn F. Dorius, 2008. "Global Demographic Convergence? A Reconsideration of Changing Intercountry Inequality in Fertility," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 34(3), pages 519-537, September.
    14. Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem & Ryder, Harl E. & Weil, David N., 2000. "Mortality decline, human capital investment, and economic growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 1-23, June.
    15. Burns, Darren K. & Jones, Andrew P. & Suhrcke, Marc, 2016. "The relationship between international trade and non-nutritional health outcomes: A systematic review of quantitative studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 9-17.
    16. Alsan, Marcella & Bloom, David E. & Canning, David, 2006. "The effect of population health on foreign direct investment inflows to low- and middle-income countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 613-630, April.
    17. Burns, Darren K. & Jones, Andrew P. & Goryakin, Yevgeniy & Suhrcke, Marc, 2017. "Is foreign direct investment good for health in low and middle income countries? An instrumental variable approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 74-82.
    18. Sucharita Ghosh & Francesco Renna, 2015. "The Relationship Between Communicable Diseases and FDI Flows: An Empirical Investigation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(10), pages 1574-1593, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chiappini, Raphaël & Coupaud, Marine & Viaud, François, 2022. "Does attracting FDI affect population health? New evidence from a multi-dimensional measure of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    2. Burns, Darren K. & Jones, Andrew P. & Goryakin, Yevgeniy & Suhrcke, Marc, 2017. "Is foreign direct investment good for health in low and middle income countries? An instrumental variable approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 74-82.
    3. Madsen, Jakob B., 2016. "Barriers to Prosperity: Parasitic and Infectious Diseases, IQ, and Economic Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 172-187.
    4. Grekou, Carl & Owoundi, Ferdinand, 2020. "Understanding how foreign direct investment inflows impact urbanization in Africa," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 48-68.
    5. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2022. "Does poverty deter foreign direct investment flows to developing countries?," International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 297-330, February.
    6. Annarita BALDANZI & Alberto BUCCI & Klaus PRETTNER, 2016. "The Effects of Health Investments on Human Capital and R&D-Driven Economic Growth," Departmental Working Papers 2016-17, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    7. Peter Lorentzen & John McMillan & Romain Wacziarg, 2008. "Death and development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 81-124, June.
    8. Michael Bar & Oksana Leukhina, 2010. "The role of mortality in the transmission of knowledge," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 291-321, December.
    9. Hazan, Moshe, 2006. "Longevity and Lifetime Labour Input: Data and Implications," CEPR Discussion Papers 5963, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Cohen, D. & Leker, L., 2016. "Testing the Ben-Porath effect through the educational patterns of young cohorts," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 252-262.
    11. Baldanzi, Annarita & Bucci, Alberto & Prettner, Klaus, 2021. "Children’S Health, Human Capital Accumulation, And R&D-Based Economic Growth," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 651-668, April.
    12. Cleeve, Emmanuel A. & Debrah, Yaw & Yiheyis, Zelealem, 2015. "Human Capital and FDI Inflow: An Assessment of the African Case," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-14.
    13. Michał Brzozowski, 2013. "Gender Equality as the Determinant of FDI Flows to Central European Countries," Ekonomia journal, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, vol. 33.
    14. Mohammad Mainul Hoque & Elizabeth M. King & Claudio E. Montenegro & Peter F. Orazem, 2019. "Revisiting the relationship between longevity and lifetime education: global evidence from 919 surveys," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 551-589, April.
    15. Trung V. Vu, 2023. "Life expectancy and human capital: New empirical evidence," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 395-412, February.
    16. Akira Momota, 2022. "Long lifespan and optimal recurrent education," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(2), pages 1193-1222, May.
    17. repec:got:cegedp:141 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Sambit Bhattacharyya, 2009. "Root Causes of African Underdevelopment," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 18(5), pages 745-780, November.
    19. Koichi Fukumura & Kohei Nagamachi & Yasuhiro Sato & Kazuhiro Yamamoto, 2020. "Demographics, immigration, and market size," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 71(4), pages 597-639, October.
    20. Ngoudji Tameko, Charlie Yves & Ningaye, Paul, 2023. "New evidence on life expectancy and development: is Sub-Saharan Africa different?," MPRA Paper 117265, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Hoque,Mohammad Mainul & King,Elizabeth M. & Montenegro,Claudio E. & Orazem,Peter F., 2017. "Longevity and lifetime education : global evidence from 919 surveys," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8175, The World Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:globus:v:24:y:2023:i:2:p:393-410. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.imi.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.