IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eco/journ1/2015-03-03.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Foreign Ownership of Firms and Corruption in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Anselm Komla Abots

    (Department of Economics, University of Education, P. O. Box 25, Winneba, Ghana,
    Graduate School of Development Economics, National Institute of Development Administration, Bangkapi, Thailand)

Abstract

The study finds the impact of the percentage of total annual sales of a firm paid as informal payments to public officials (bribes) on foreign ownership of firms in Africa while controlling for other variables outside the country of origin of investment. The study used secondary data from the World Business Environment Survey conducted by the World Bank. In all 3290 firms made up of the manufacturing, services and retail sectors are included in the analysis. The Tobit and probit estimation techniques were used. The results indicate that the percentage of total annual sales of the firm paid as informal payments to the public officials has a negative and highly significant impact on foreign ownership of firms in Africa. African leaders should therefore institute policies to control corruption in order to boost foreign investors' confidence in their economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Anselm Komla Abots, 2015. "Foreign Ownership of Firms and Corruption in Africa," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 5(3), pages 647-655.
    • Handle: RePEc:eco:journ1:2015-03-03
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/download/1248/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/view/1248/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dupasquier, Chantal & Osakwe, Patrick N., 2006. "Foreign direct investment in Africa: Performance, challenges, and responsibilities," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 241-260, April.
    2. Anwar, Sajid & Sun, Sizhong, 2014. "Heterogeneity and curvilinearity of FDI-related productivity spillovers in China's manufacturing sector," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 23-32.
    3. Lin, Feng-Jyh, 2010. "The determinants of foreign direct investment in China: The case of Taiwanese firms in the IT industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(5), pages 479-485, May.
    4. Peter J. Buckley & Mark Casson, 1991. "The Future of the Multinational Enterprise," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, edition 0, number 978-1-349-21204-0.
    5. Jakob Svensson, 2005. "Eight Questions about Corruption," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(3), pages 19-42, Summer.
    6. Dal Bo, Ernesto & Rossi, Martin A., 2007. "Corruption and inefficiency: Theory and evidence from electric utilities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 939-962, June.
    7. Badunenko, Oleg & Fritsch, Michael & Stephan, Andreas, 2008. "What Drives the Productive Efficiency of a Firm? - the importance of industry, location, R&D, and size," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 126, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    8. Brunetti, Aymo & Kisunko, Gregory & Weder, Beatrice, 1998. "Credibility of Rules and Economic Growth: Evidence from a Worldwide Survey of the Private Sector," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 12(3), pages 353-384, September.
    9. Fabienne Boudier‐Bensebaa, 2005. "Agglomeration economies and location choice: Foreign direct investment in Hungary," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 13(4), pages 605-628, October.
    10. Anselm Komla Abotsi & Gershon Yawo Dake & Richard Abankwa Agyepong, 2014. "Factors Influencing Risk Management Decision of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Ghana," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 8(4), December.
    11. Elizabeth Asiedu, 2006. "Foreign Direct Investment in Africa: The Role of Natural Resources, Market Size, Government Policy, Institutions and Political Instability," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 63-77, January.
    12. Oldenski, Lindsay, 2012. "Export Versus FDI and the Communication of Complex Information," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 312-322.
    13. Yui Kimura, 1989. "Firm-Specific Strategic Advantages and Foreign Direct Investments Behavior of Firms: The Case of Japanese Semiconductor Firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 20(2), pages 296-314, June.
    14. Fabrice Defever, 2006. "Functional fragmentation and the location of multinational firms in the enlarged Europe," Post-Print halshs-00118808, HAL.
    15. Graziano Abrate & Federico Boffa & Fabrizio Erbetta & Davide Vannoni, 2013. "Corruption, Accountability and Efficiency. An Application to Municipal Solid Waste Services," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 316, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    16. Ayça Tekin-Koru, 2006. "Corruption and the ownership composition of the multinational firm at the time of entry: Evidence from Turkey," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 30(2), pages 251-269, June.
    17. Abdiweli M. Ali & Hoden Said Isse, 2003. "Determinants of Economic Corruption: A Cross-Country Comparison," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 22(3), pages 449-466, Winter.
    18. Beata K. Smarzynska & Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "Corruption and Composition of Foreign Direct Investment: Firm-Level Evidence," NBER Working Papers 7969, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Bellak, Christian & Leibrecht, Markus & Riedl, Aleksandra, 2008. "Labour costs and FDI flows into Central and Eastern European Countries: A survey of the literature and empirical evidence," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 17-37, March.
    20. Edinaldo Tebaldi & Bruce Elmslie, 2008. "Institutions, Innovation And Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 27-53, December.
    21. Fisman, Raymond & Svensson, Jakob, 2007. "Are corruption and taxation really harmful to growth? Firm level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 63-75, May.
    22. Mihir Desai & Paul Gompers & Josh Lerner, 2003. "Institutions, Capital Constraints and Entrepreneurial Firm Dynamics: Evidence from Europe," NBER Working Papers 10165, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Duanmu, Jing-Lin, 2011. "The effect of corruption distance and market orientation on the ownership choice of MNEs: Evidence from China," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 162-174, June.
    24. Axel Dreher & Martin Gassebner, 2013. "Greasing the wheels? The impact of regulations and corruption on firm entry," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 413-432, June.
    25. Asiedu, Elizabeth, 2002. "On the Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment to Developing Countries: Is Africa Different?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 107-119, January.
    26. Defever, Fabrice, 2006. "Functional fragmentation and the location of multinational firms in the enlarged Europe," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 658-677, September.
    27. VINTILĂ Denisia, 2010. "Foreign Direct Investment Theories: An Overview of the Main FDI Theories," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 02, June.
    28. Peter Havlik, 2005. "Unit Labour Costs in the New EU Member States," wiiw Statistical Reports 1, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    29. Klaus Uhlenbruck & Peter Rodriguez & Jonathan Doh & Lorraine Eden, 2006. "The Impact of Corruption on Entry Strategy: Evidence from Telecommunication Projects in Emerging Economies," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 402-414, June.
    30. Dunning, John H, 1973. "The Determinants of International Production," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 289-336, November.
    31. Jayesh Kumar, 2003. "Ownership Structure and Corporate Firm Performance," Finance 0304004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    32. Tomi Ovaska & Russell S. Sobel, 2005. "Entrepreneurship in Post-Socialist Economies," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 21(Fall 2005), pages 8-28.
    33. Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra, 2006. "Who cares about corruption?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(6), pages 807-822, November.
    34. Ms. Elina Ribakova & Mr. Balázs Horváth & Mr. Dimitri G Demekas & Mr. Yi Wu, 2005. "Foreign Direct Investment in Southeastern Europe: How (and How Much) Can Policies Help?," IMF Working Papers 2005/110, International Monetary Fund.
    35. John H Dunning, 1980. "Towards an Eclectic Theory of International Production: Some Empirical Tests," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 11(1), pages 9-31, March.
    36. Nigel L. Driffield & Tomasz Mickiewicz & Sarmistha Pal & Yama Temouri, 2010. "Bridging the Gap? Corruption, Knowledge and Foreign Ownership," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 10-01, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University.
    37. John H Dunning, 1988. "The Eclectic Paradigm of International Production: A Restatement and Some Possible Extensions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 19(1), pages 1-31, March.
    38. Edgardo Campos, J. & Lien, Donald & Pradhan, Sanjay, 1999. "The Impact of Corruption on Investment: Predictability Matters," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1059-1067, June.
    39. Friedman, Eric & Johnson, Simon & Kaufmann, Daniel & Zoido-Lobaton, Pablo, 2000. "Dodging the grabbing hand: the determinants of unofficial activity in 69 countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 459-493, June.
    40. Sanjeev Agarwal & Sridhar N Ramaswami, 1992. "Choice of Foreign Market Entry Mode: Impact of Ownership, Location and Internationalization Factors," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 23(1), pages 1-27, March.
    41. Paolo Mauro, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712.
    42. Vial, Virginie & Hanoteau, Julien, 2010. "Corruption, Manufacturing Plant Growth, and the Asian Paradox: Indonesian Evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 693-705, May.
    43. Matthews, R C O, 1986. "The Economics of Institutions and the," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(384), pages 903-918, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anselm Komla Abotsi, 2016. "Power Outages and Production Efficiency of Firms in Africa," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 6(1), pages 98-104.
    2. Abdisa, Lamessa T., 2018. "Power outages, economic cost, and firm performance: Evidence from Ethiopia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 111-120.
    3. Lamessa Tariku ABDISA, 2018. "Power Outages, its Economic Cost and Firm Performance: Evidence from Ethiopia," Departmental Working Papers 2018-01, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    4. Anselm Komla Abotsi & Tongyai Iyavarakul, 2015. "Tolerable Level of Corruption for Foreign Direct Investment in Africa," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 9(3), September.

    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. Anselm Komla Abotsi & Tongyai Iyavarakul, 2015. "Tolerable Level of Corruption for Foreign Direct Investment in Africa," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 9(3), September.
    2. Anselm komla Abotsi, 2016. "Theory of Foreign Direct Investment and Corruption," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 6(6), pages 359-378, June.
    3. Wu, Tao & Delios, Andrew & Chen, Zhaowei & Wang, Xin, 2023. "Rethinking corruption in international business: An empirical review," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(2).
    4. Bartels, Frank L. & Napolitano, Francesco & Tissi, Nicola E., 2014. "FDI in Sub-Saharan Africa: A longitudinal perspective on location-specific factors (2003–2010)," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 516-529.
    5. repec:pdn:wpaper:79 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Mehmet Demirbag & Martina McGuinness & Hüseyin Altay, 2010. "Perceptions of Institutional Environment and Entry Mode," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 207-240, April.
    7. repec:pdn:wpaper:70 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Jamie Bologna & Amanda Ross, 2015. "Corruption and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Random Audit Program," Working Papers 15-05, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    9. Nielsen, Bo Bernhard & Asmussen, Christian Geisler & Weatherall, Cecilie Dohlmann, 2017. "The location choice of foreign direct investments: Empirical evidence and methodological challenges," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 62-82.
    10. Jan Hanousek & Anastasiya Shamshur & Jan Svejnar & Jiri Tresl, 2021. "Corruption level and uncertainty, FDI and domestic investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(9), pages 1750-1774, December.
    11. Alice N. Sindzingre & Christian Milelli, 2010. "The Uncertain Relationship between Corruption and Growth in Developing Countries: Threshold Effects and State Effectiveness," EconomiX Working Papers 2010-10, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    12. Cooray, Arusha & Dzhumashev, Ratbek, 2018. "The effect of corruption on labour market outcomes," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 207-218.
    13. Priya, Pragati & Sharma, Chandan, 2023. "Reinforcing the effects of corruption and financial constraints on firm performance: Normal versus crisis period in developing economies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    14. Kodila Tedika, Oasis, 2012. "Consequences De La Corruption : Panorama Empirique [Consequences of Corruption : Empirical survey]," MPRA Paper 41482, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Atsushi Kato & Takahiro Sato, 2014. "The effect of corruption on the manufacturing sector in India," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 155-178, May.
    16. Damir Piplica, 2011. "Corruption And Inflation In Transition Eu Member Countries," Economic Thought and Practice, Department of Economics and Business, University of Dubrovnik, vol. 20(2), pages 469-506, december.
    17. Cuervo-Cazurra, Alvaro, 2016. "Corruption in international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 35-49.
    18. Godwin Okafor & Jenifer Piesse & Allan Webster, 2017. "FDI Determinants in Least Recipient Regions: The Case of Sub†Saharan Africa and MENA," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 29(4), pages 589-600, December.
    19. Lurdes Martins & Jorge Cerdeira & Aurora A.C. Teixeira, 2020. "Does corruption boost or harm firms’ performance in developing and emerging economies? A firm‐level study," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(8), pages 2119-2152, August.
    20. Nhan Buu Phan & Shino Takayama, 2023. "A Model of Corruption and Heterogeneous Productivity: A Theoretical Approach," Discussion Papers Series 660, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    21. Joshua Hall & John Levendis & Alexandre R. Scarcioffolo, 2020. "The Efficient Corruption Hypothesis and the Dynamics Between Economic Freedom, Corruption, and National Income," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 54(3), pages 161-175, July-Sept.
    22. Chris Wagner, 2020. "Deducing a state-of-the-art presentation of the Eclectic Paradigm from four decades of development: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(1), pages 51-96, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Foreign Ownership of Firm; Informal Payments; Corruption; Institutions; Foreign Investors;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • F32 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Current Account Adjustment; Short-term Capital Movements

    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:eco:journ1:2015-03-03. 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: Ilhan Ozturk (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.econjournals.com .

    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.