IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ays/ispwps/paper1424.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

But Most of All We Love Each Other: Does Social Cohesion Pay off? Evidence from FDI Flows to Middle Income Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Wasseem Mina

    (United Arab Emirates University)

Abstract

The World Bank (2013) argues that social cohesion shapes the context in which entrepreneurs make investment decisions and therefore job creation. In this paper, we focus on FDI as one link of primary importance in this argument, and empirically examine the relationship between social cohesion and FDI flows. Using panel data on 52 middle income countries for the period 1984-2012, we first identify social cohesion-related institutions using principal component analysis and then examine the influence of those institutions individually and as a principal component on FDI flows. PCA identifies religion in politics, internal and external conflicts, and ethnic tensions as institutions with highest loadings. Adopting dynamic panel estimation methodologies - FE, IV and system GMM, the paper finds that religion in politics stands out with its positive influence on FDI inflows. A one percentage point improvement in religion in politics increases FDI flows by about 0.5 percentage point. The positive influence is robust to the estimation methodology adopted and to the sample size. The novelty of the paper lies first in identifying social cohesion-related institutions and principal component and second in discovering the positive influence of less religion in politics on FDI flows to middle income countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Wasseem Mina, 2014. "But Most of All We Love Each Other: Does Social Cohesion Pay off? Evidence from FDI Flows to Middle Income Countries," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1424, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    • Handle: RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper1424
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://icepp.gsu.edu/files/2015/03/ispwp1424.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guiso, Luigi & Sapienza, Paola & Zingales, Luigi, 2003. "People's opium? Religion and economic attitudes," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 225-282, January.
    2. Burger, Martijn & Ianchovichina, Elena & Rijkers, Bob, 2013. "Risky business : political instability and greenfield foreign direct investment in the Arab world," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6716, The World Bank.
    3. Teraji, Shinji, 2011. "An economic analysis of social exclusion and inequality," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 217-223, May.
    4. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz, 2005. "Institutions, Social Capital, and Economic Development in Africa: An Empirical Study," ICER Working Papers 18-2005, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    5. Alberto Alesina & Eliana La Ferrara, 2000. "Participation in Heterogeneous Communities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 847-904.
    6. Mina, Wasseem Michel, 2012. "The Institutional Reforms Debate and FDI Flows to the MENA Region: The “Best” Ensemble," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(9), pages 1798-1809.
    7. Chakrabarti, Avik, 2001. "The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment: Sensitivity Analyses of Cross-Country Regressions," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 89-113.
    8. Rodrik, Dani, 1999. "Where Did All the Growth Go? External Shocks, Social Conflict, and Growth Collapses," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 385-412, December.
    9. 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.
    10. Busse, Matthias & Hefeker, Carsten, 2007. "Political risk, institutions and foreign direct investment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 397-415, June.
    11. Xavier Sala-I-Martin & Gernot Doppelhofer & Ronald I. Miller, 2004. "Determinants of Long-Term Growth: A Bayesian Averaging of Classical Estimates (BACE) Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 813-835, September.
    12. Philip Keefer & Stuti Khemani, 2005. "Democracy, Public Expenditures, and the Poor: Understanding Political Incentives for Providing Public Services," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 20(1), pages 1-27.
    13. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    14. Alberto Alesina & Reza Baqir & William Easterly, 1999. "Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1243-1284.
    15. Noland, Marcus, 2005. "Religion and economic performance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1215-1232, August.
    16. Neumayer, Eric & Spess, Laura, 2005. "Do bilateral investment treaties increase foreign direct investment to developing countries?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1567-1585, October.
    17. Ivar Kolstad & Arne Wiig, 2009. "What determines Chinese outward FDI?," CMI Working Papers 3, CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute), Bergen, Norway.
    18. Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2008. "Religion, politics, and development: Lessons from the lands of Islam," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 329-351, November.
    19. William Easterly & Ross Levine, 1997. "Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 112(4), pages 1203-1250.
    20. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz & George Mavrotas, 2009. "Aid Effectiveness: Looking at the Aid-Social Capital-Growth Nexus," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(s1), pages 510-525, August.
    21. Joel Sobel, 2002. "Can We Trust Social Capital?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 139-154, March.
    22. Felix Rioja & Neven Valev, 2004. "Finance and the Sources of Growth at Various Stages of Economic Development," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 42(1), pages 127-140, January.
    23. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    24. Lucas, Karen, 2012. "Transport and social exclusion: Where are we now?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 105-113.
    25. Paolo Mauro, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712.
    26. Stanley, John K. & Hensher, David A. & Stanley, Janet R. & Vella-Brodrick, Dianne, 2011. "Mobility, social exclusion and well-being: Exploring the links," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 789-801, October.
    27. W. A. Naude & W. F. Krugell, 2007. "Investigating geography and institutions as determinants of foreign direct investment in Africa using panel data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(10), pages 1223-1233.
    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. Wasseem Mina & Louis Jaeck, 2015. "Labor Market Flexibility and FDI Flows: Evidence from Oil-Rich GCC and Middle Income Countries," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1501, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    2. Cao Hong Minh, 2019. "Institutional Quality and Foreign Direct Investment Inflows: The Case of Vietnam," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(5), pages 630-641, May.

    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. Mina, Wasseem, 2012. "Beyond FDI: The Influence of Bilateral Investment Treaties on Debt," MPRA Paper 51920, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Mina, Wasseem, 2015. "Political risk guarantees and capital flows: The role of bilateral investment treaties," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-38.
    3. Tag, Mehmet Nasih, 2021. "Judicial institutions of property rights protection and foreign direct investment inflows," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    4. Ying, Zheng & Liu, Shibao & Bao, Shuming & Zhou, Jianbo, 2017. "Religious diversity and regional development in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-9.
    5. Eris, Mehmet, 2010. "Population heterogeneity and growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1211-1222, September.
    6. Hauner, David & Kyobe, Annette, 2010. "Determinants of Government Efficiency," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 1527-1542, November.
    7. Rougier, Eric, 2016. "“Fire in Cairo”: Authoritarian–Redistributive Social Contracts, Structural Change, and the Arab Spring," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 148-171.
    8. Alesina, Alberto & Devleeschauwer, Arnaud & Easterly, William & Kurlat, Sergio & Wacziarg, Romain, 2003. "Fractionalization," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 155-194, June.
    9. Simplice Asongu & Enowbi Batuo & Vanessa Tchamyou, 2015. "Bundling Governance: Finance versus Institutions in Private Investment Promotion," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 15/051, African Governance and Development Institute..
    10. Bello K. Ajide, 2020. "Fragmentation and financial development in Sub-Saharan Africa Countries: the case of diversity debit versus diversity dividend theses," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 379-428, August.
    11. Simplice A. Asongu & Joseph Nnanna & Vanessa S. Tchamyou, 2020. "Finance, Institutions and Private Investment in Africa," Research Africa Network Working Papers 20/080, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    12. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Viola Berlepsch, 2019. "Does Population Diversity Matter for Economic Development in the Very Long Term? Historic Migration, Diversity and County Wealth in the US," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(5), pages 873-911, December.
    13. Thomas Farole & Andres Rodriguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2007. "Social capital, rules, and institutions: A cross-country investigation," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03461998, HAL.
    14. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/o45fqtltm960r11iq437ski90 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/f0uohitsgqh8dhk980eal4i12 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Akhtaruzzaman, M. & Berg, Nathan & Hajzler, Christopher, 2017. "Expropriation risk and FDI in developing countries: Does return of capital dominate return on capital?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 84-107.
    17. Hatra Voghouei & Mohammad Ali Jamali, 2018. "Determinants of government efficiency: does information technology play a role?," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 8(3), pages 285-298, September.
    18. Bodea, Cristina & Elbadawi, Ibrahim A., 2008. "Political violence and economic growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4692, The World Bank.
    19. Zühal Kurul & A. Yasemin Yalta, 2017. "Relationship between Institutional Factors and FDI Flows in Developing Countries: New Evidence from Dynamic Panel Estimation," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-10, May.
    20. Bailey, Nicholas, 2018. "Exploring the relationship between institutional factors and FDI attractiveness: A meta-analytic review," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 139-148.
    21. Yang, Benhua, 2008. "Does democracy lower growth volatility? A dynamic panel analysis," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 562-574, March.
    22. Wasseem Mina & Louis Jaeck, 2015. "Labor Market Flexibility and FDI Flows: Evidence from Oil-Rich GCC and Middle Income Countries," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1501, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social cohesion; FDI; Institutions; Religion in politics; Ethnic tensions; Conflicts; Panel data models; Fixed effects; Instrumental variables estimation; System GMM.;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ays:ispwps:paper1424. 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: Paul Benson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ispgsus.html .

    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.