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Foreign Direct Investment, human capital and non-linearities in economic growth

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  • Constantina Kottaridi
  • Thanasis Stengos

Abstract

This paper makes a contribution to the existing literature on the foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth nexus by contrasting past empirical evidence and conventional wisdom and arriving at some interesting new results. By applying non-parametric methods, and thus taking into account nonlinear effects of initial income and human capital on economic growth, we explore the FDI effect on growth in much greater detail than previous studies. Our findings not only confirm the nonlinear effect of human capital in the presence of FDI inflows but also suggest that FDI inflows are growth enhancing in the middle-income countries while there is a ‘two-regime FDI effect for high income countries. This new finding appears to be independent of OECD country membership.

Suggested Citation

  • Constantina Kottaridi & Thanasis Stengos, 2008. "Foreign Direct Investment, human capital and non-linearities in economic growth," Working Papers 019, University of Peloponnese, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:uop:wpaper:019
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    Cited by:

    1. Shu-Chen Chang, 2010. "Estimating Relationships Among FDI Inflow, Domestic Capital, and Economic Growth Using the Threshold Error Correction Approach," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 6-15, January.
    2. Arshad Hayat, 2014. "FDI and Economic Growth: The Role of Natural Resources," Working Papers IES 2014/36, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Dec 2014.
    3. repec:ris:utmsje:0205 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Shu-Chen Chang, 2010. "Estimating Relationships Among FDI Inflow, Domestic Capital, and Economic Growth Using the Threshold Error Correction Approach," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 6-15, January.
    5. repec:hpe:journl:y:2017:v:221:i:3:p:43-63 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Delgado, Michael S. & McCloud, Nadine & Kumbhakar, Subal C., 2014. "A generalized empirical model of corruption, foreign direct investment, and growth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 298-316.
    7. Teixeira, Aurora A.C. & Tavares-Lehmann, Ana Teresa, 2014. "Human capital intensity in technology-based firms located in Portugal: Does foreign ownership matter?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 737-748.
    8. Weshah Razzak & Elmostafa Bentour, 2012. "Do Developing Countries Benefit from Foreign Direct Investments?," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2012_07, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    9. Savoiu, Gheorghe & Dinu, Vasile & Ciuca, Suzana, 2013. "Foreign Direct Investment based on Country Risk and other Macroconomic Factors. Econometric Models for Romanian Economy," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(1), pages 39-61, March.
    10. Carike Claassen & Elsabé Loots & Henri Bezuidenhout, 2011. "Chinese Foreign Direct Investment in Africa," Working Papers 261, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    11. Aurangzeb Zeb & Thanasis Stengos, 2013. "The Role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in a Dualistic Growth Framework: An Application of Smooth Coefficient Semi-parametric Approach," Working Paper series 55_13, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    12. Henderson, Daniel J. & Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Parmeter, Christopher F., 2012. "A simple method to visualize results in nonlinear regression models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 578-581.
    13. Faik Bilgili & Nadide S. Tülüce & Ibrahim Doğan & H. Hilal Bağlıtas, 2016. "The causality between FDI and sector-specific production in Turkey: evidence from threshold cointegration with regime shifts," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(5), pages 345-360, January.
    14. Juan Rodriguez-Poo & Alexandra Soberón, 2015. "Differencing techniques in semi-parametric panel data varying coefficient models with fixed effects: a Monte Carlo study," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 885-906, September.
    15. Wen-Shuenn Deng & Yi-Chen Lin, 2013. "Parameter heterogeneity in the foreign direct investment-income inequality relationship: a semiparametric regression analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 845-872, October.
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    18. Jia Chen & Degui Li & Yingcun Xia, 2015. "New Semiparametric Estimation Procedure for Functional Coefficient Longitudinal Data Models," Discussion Papers 15/17, Department of Economics, University of York.
    19. Nicholas Apergis & Arusha Cooray, 2016. "Old Wine In A New Bottle: Trade Openness And Fdi Flows—Are The Emerging Economies Converging?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(2), pages 336-351, April.
    20. Donny Tang, 2015. "Has the European Financial Integration Promoted the Economic Growth Among the New European Union Countries?," Research in Economics and Business: Central and Eastern Europe, Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration, Tallinn University of Technology, vol. 7(1).
    21. Razzak Weshah A. & Bentour El M., 2013. "Do Developing Countries Benefit from Foreign Direct Investments? An Analysis of Some Arab and Asian Countries," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 9(3), pages 357-388, December.
    22. SENTURK, Mehmet & AKBAS, Yusuf Ekrem & OZKAN, Gokcen, 2014. "Cross Sectional Dependence and Cointegration Analysis among the GDP-Foreign Direct Investment and Aggregate Credits: Evidence from Selected Developing Countries," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(11), pages 1485-1501, November.

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    Keywords

    cross country growth regressions; FDI; human capital; semi-parametric model;

    JEL classification:

    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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