Bilateral foreign direct investments: differential effects of tariffs in source and destination countries

We study the asymmetric effects of bilateral tariffs in FDI-receiving (destination) and FDI-sending (source) countries on bilateral FDI using Gravity analysis, with bilateral FDI and average tariff data for 47 countries during the period 2001–2012. Theory suggests that while the former would encourage tariff-jumping inward FDI, the latter would discourage offshoring and export-oriented outward FDI. Our empirical study uses two alternative methodologies to estimate a Gravity model, viz., PPML estimation method which uses pairwise, destination-time and origin-time fixed effects, and GMM with time fixed effects, which can deal with possible two-way causality. After correcting for possible two-way causality, our study confirms the theoretical expectations. We also find that the 2008 Financial Crisis has had a significant impact on the magnitude of the effects of bilateral tariffs. We find that one percentage-point increase in tariffs in the destination country increases inward FDI stock to GDP ratio in that country by 0.06% in the non-crisis years and by 0.01% in the crisis years. Similarly, one percentage-point increase in tariffs in the origin country decreases outward FDI stock to GDP ratio from that country by 0.06% in the non-crisis years and by 0.02% in the crisis years.