IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/reviec/v20y2012i2p396-414.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Does Foreign Direct Investment Really Affect Developing Countries' Growth?

Author

Listed:
  • Dierk Herzer

Abstract

This paper contributes to the literature on foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth in two main ways. First, we examine the effect of FDI on economic growth for 44 developing countries over the period 1970 to 2005 using heterogeneous panel cointegration techniques that are robust to omitted variables and endogenous regressors. In contrast to previous studies, we find that FDI has, on average, a negative effect on growth in developing countries, but that there are large cross-country differences in the growth effects of FDI. Second, we use a general-tospecific model selection approach to systematically search for country-specific factors explaining the cross-country differences in the growth effects of FDI. Contrary to previous results, we find that the cross-country differences in per capita income, human capital, openness, and financial market development cannot explain the cross-country differences in the growth effects of FDI. Instead, the growth effects of FDI are positively related to freedom from government intervention and freedom from business regulation, and negatively related to FDI volatility and natural resource dependence.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Dierk Herzer, 2012. "How Does Foreign Direct Investment Really Affect Developing Countries' Growth?," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 396-414, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:reviec:v:20:y:2012:i:2:p:396-414
    DOI: j.1467-9396.2012.01029.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-9396.2012.01029.x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/j.1467-9396.2012.01029.x?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Magnus Blomstrom & Robert E. Lipsey & Mario Zejan, 1992. "What Explains Developing Country Growth?," NBER Working Papers 4132, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Haddad, Mona & Harrison, Ann, 1993. "Are there positive spillovers from direct foreign investment? : Evidence from panel data for Morocco," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 51-74, October.
    3. repec:bla:obuest:v:63:y:2001:i:2:p:153-71 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Usha Nair‐Reichert & Diana Weinhold, 2001. "Causality Tests for Cross‐Country Panels: a New Look at FDI and Economic Growth in Developing Countries," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 63(2), pages 153-171, May.
    5. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1997. "I Just Ran Two Million Regressions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 178-183, May.
    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. Burcu ŞENALP, 2018. "Foreign Direct Investment, Economic Growth and Economic Freedom: A Literature Survey," Istanbul Journal of Economics-Istanbul Iktisat Dergisi, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 68(2), pages 301-336, December.
    2. Brahmbhatt, Milan & Srinivasan, T.G. & Murrell, Kim, 1996. "India in the global economy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1681, The World Bank.
    3. Dierk Herzer & Stephan Klasen & Felicitas Nowak-Lehmann D., 2006. "In search of FDI-led growth in developing countries," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 150, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Axel Dreher, 2002. "Does Globalization Affect Growth?," Development and Comp Systems 0210004, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 16 Jun 2003.
    5. Cristina JUDE & Grégory LEVIEUGE, 2013. "Growth Effect of FDI in Developing Economies: the Role of Institutional Quality," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2251, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    6. Herzer, Dierk, 2013. "Cross-Country Heterogeneity and the Trade-Income Relationship," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 194-211.
    7. Herrmann, Sabine & Winkler, Adalbert, 2009. "Real convergence, financial markets, and the current account - Emerging Europe versus emerging Asia," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 100-123, August.
    8. Rajneesh Narula & André Pineli, 2017. "Multinational Enterprises and Economic Development in Host Countries: What We Know and What We Don’t Know," Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance, in: Gianluigi Giorgioni (ed.), Development Finance, chapter 6, pages 147-188, Palgrave Macmillan.
    9. Chu, Amanda M.Y. & Lv, Zhihui & Wagner, Niklas F. & Wong, Wing-Keung, 2020. "Linear and nonlinear growth determinants: The case of Mongolia and its connection to China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    10. Dalila NICET- CHENAF (GREThA-GRES) & Eric ROUGIER (GREThA-GRES), 2008. "Recent exports matter: export discoveries, FDI and Growth, an empirical assessment for MENA countries," Cahiers du GRES (2002-2009) 2008-17, Groupement de Recherches Economiques et Sociales.
    11. Axel Dreher, 2006. "Does globalization affect growth? Evidence from a new index of globalization," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(10), pages 1091-1110.
    12. Reiter, S.L. & Steensma, H. Kevin, 2010. "Human Development and Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Countries: The Influence of FDI Policy and Corruption," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 1678-1691, December.
    13. Harpreet Dusanjh & A.S. Sidhu, 2009. "Multi-spillover Effects of Multinational Corporations on Host Countries," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 10(2), pages 243-260, July.
    14. J Benson Durham, "undated". "A Survey of the Econometric Literature on the Real Effects of International Capital Flows in Lower Income Countries," QEH Working Papers qehwps50, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    15. Latif Khalilov & Chae-Deug Yi, 2020. "Is Foreign Direct Investment a Real Driving Force of Economic Growth? A Panel Data Analysis," Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, vol. 12(3), pages 273-299, September.
    16. Ausloos, Marcel & Eskandary, Ali & Kaur, Parmjit & Dhesi, Gurjeet, 2019. "Evidence for Gross Domestic Product growth time delay dependence over Foreign Direct Investment. A time-lag dependent correlation study," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 527(C).
    17. Kottaridi, Constantina & Stengos, Thanasis, 2010. "Foreign direct investment, human capital and non-linearities in economic growth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 858-871, September.
    18. Yongrong Xin & Aftab Hussain Tabasam & Zhenling Chen & Aysha Zamir & Carlos Samuel Ramos-Meza, 2024. "Analyzing the Impact of Foreign Direct Investment, Energy Consumption on Services Exports, and Growth of the Services Sector: Evidence from SAARC Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 5709-5728, June.
    19. George R. G. Clarke, 2001. "How institutional quality and economic factors impact technological deepening in developing countries," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(8), pages 1097-1118.
    20. Fabienne Fortanier & Selwyn Moons, 2011. "Foreign Investors in The Netherlands: Heterogeneous Employment and Productivity Effects," De Economist, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 511-531, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:reviec:v:20:y:2012:i:2:p:396-414. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0965-7576 .

    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.