IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-04093330.html

Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Political Stability? Evidence from Developing Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Assi Okara

    (African Development Bank Group, CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne)

Abstract

Socio-political instability remains a threat to development. While concerns are often raised regarding the role foreign investors play in perpetuating this threat, empirical evidence on FDI's internal political effects is scarce and presents mixed results. In line with the literature on the determinants of political risk, this paper posits that by generating economic opportunities, FDI promotes political stability. Unlike the extant literature, which considers overall FDI, I test this hypothesis by focusing on greenfield FDI, given its greater socioeconomic externalities resulting from directly generated new economic activity and jobs. While this literature focuses on armed conflicts, socio-political stability in this paper is approached from an institutional perspective. Based on a large sample of developing countries and instrumental variable techniques, the results show that FDI fosters socio-political stability. Accounting for political repression, the results also highlight that FDIinduced stability is compatible with governmental respect for human rights, thus preserving individual well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Assi Okara, 2023. "Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Political Stability? Evidence from Developing Economies," Post-Print hal-04093330, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04093330
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2023.106249
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://uca.hal.science/hal-04093330v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://uca.hal.science/hal-04093330v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2023.106249?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Muhammad Bahar Khan & Imran Naseem & Ahmad Hamidi & Mohd Khata Jabor & Nur Fatihah Abdullah Bandar & Khalid Zaman, 2024. "Strategic Influence in Focus: Assessing the Roles of Defense Expenditures, Foreign Capital, Political Stability, and Energy Sustainability in Geopolitical Dynamics," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 14(6), pages 476-483, November.
    2. Sargis Karavardanyan, 2025. "Corruption, economic globalization, and protests: theory and evidence for short- and long-term mechanisms," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 5(6), pages 1-33, June.
    3. Liis Roosaar & Jaan Masso & Rasmus Bøgh Holmen, 2025. "The effects of foreign acquisitions on wages: how the country of origin matters," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 59(1), pages 1-23, December.
    4. Shao, Hanhua & Wang, Yaning & Lee, Chien-Chiang & Wen, Huwei, 2024. "How does political stability affect renewable energy finance? International evidence," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    5. Bambe, Bao-We-Wal & Ouedraogo, Adama, 2025. "Public expenditure efficiency and foreign direct investment in developing countries," IDOS Discussion Papers 16/2025, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    6. Alemayehu Geda & Addis Yimer, 2024. "What Drives Foreign Direct Investment into Africa? Insights from a New Analytical Classification of Countries as Fragile, Factor-Driven, or Investment-Driven," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 14199-14234, September.
    7. Peter Mwai Kinuthia & Issacs K Kemboi & James Onyango & Muyiwa Samuel Adaramola, 2025. "Renewable Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Moderating Role of Institutional Quality," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(5), pages 4257-4270, May.

    More about this item

    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:hal:journl:hal-04093330. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.