1、Foreign Direct Investment And Growth:New Evidences from Sub-Saharan African countries 出 处： University of Technology, Mauritius University of Mauritius 作者： B Seetanah ,A J Khadaroo Abstract The paper investigates the impact of foreign direct investment(FDI) on economic growth for a panel of 39 Sub-Sa
2、haran African countries for the period 19802000.An extended Cobb Douglas production function is used whereby investment is disaggregated into its different types namely domestic private,foreign direct and public investment for more insights comparative analysis.Taking into account the possible exist
3、ence of endogeneity in FDI modeling,the study employs both static and dynamic panel data estimates.Results from the analysis suggest that FDI is an important element in explaining economic performance of Sub Saharan African countries,though to a lesser extent as compared to the other types of capita
4、l.Moreover the study confirms the presence of important endogeneity in FDI-growth relationship as FDI is not only seen to lead growth but to follow growth as well. 1.Introduction There is a general theoretical consensus among development economists that foreign direct investment(FDI)inflows is likel
5、y to play a critical role in explaining growth of recipient countries(De Mello,1997,1999；Buckley et al.,2002；Akinlo,2004 provide detailed literature survey).FDI inflows in fact represent additional resources a country needs to improve its economic performance and provides both physical capital and e
6、mployment possibilities that may not be available in the host market.As De Gregorio(1992)argued by increasing capital stock,FDI can increase countrys output and productivity through a more efficient use of existing resources and by absorbing unemployed resources.However,the economic impact of FDI re
7、mains more contentious in empirical than in theoretical studies.While many studies observe positive impacts of FDI on economic growth,others also reported a negative relationship and among the main reasons for this controversy remain data insufficiency and methodological flaws.Earlier cross country
8、studies failed to take into account continuously evolving country-specific differences in technology,production and socioeconomic factors and it is only recently that empirical studies have made use of panel data to correct the above(see Bende-Nabende&Ford,1998；Nair-Reichert&Weinhold,2001；Bende-Nabe
9、nde et al,2003；Choe,2003).In effect,FDI may have a positive impact on economic growth leading to an enlarged market size,which in turn attracts further FDI as well.This is referred to as the market size hypothesis,that is markets with rapid economic growths tend to give multinational firms more oppo
10、rtunities to generate greater sales and profits and thus become more attractive to their investments.Given the possible interdependency of these two variables,there is a need for a proper test of endogeneity.Moreover a very scarce amount of work has been devoted on the relationship between FDI and g
11、rowth in developing countries,particularly for African economies. This research thus attempts to complement the few empirical works have undertaken on the FDI-growth hypothesis in the case of Africa.For aims at investigating the empirical link between FDI inflows and economic performance for a panel
12、 of 39 Sub Saharan African countries,selected as per data availability,for the period 1980-2000 using panel data regression techniques.The study further allows for dynamics and endogeneity issues by using dynamic panel data estimates,namely the Generalised Methods of Moments (GMM)method.Such empiric
13、al evidences from Sub-Saharan African countries are believed to add to the growing literature in the debate. The paper is organised as follows,section 2 reviews the literature review,section 3 discusses the empirical approach,the data used and also analyses the econometric results.The last section c
14、oncludes the study. 2.Literature Review Foreign direct investment has been proved in the literature to be an important promoter of growth in its own right.In effect,foreign direct investment is argued to increase the level of domestic capital formation.This also implies producing on large scale whic
15、h in turn results in benefits of economies of scale and specialisation and also increasing export and employment opportunities.These are likely to result in positive economic impacts. Foreign direct investment is a particularly key ingredient of successful economic growth in developing countries bec
16、ause the very essence of economic development is the rapid and efficient transfer and cross border adoption of best practices,be it managerial and technical best practice or deployment of technology from abroad(Borensztein et al.,1998).Proximity and better access to large market is also well known t
17、o attract foreign direct investment that in turn implies often accelerated technology transfer.As such better worker training dispensed by foreign investors has often been argued to raise the level of productivity.Countries can in effect use such firms as catalysts that allow them to leapfrog stages
18、 in development.Foreign direct investment can thus speed up the structural shift of the economy.FDI has also been argued to act as a catalyst for inward investment by complementing local resources and providing a signal of confidence in investment opportunities(Agosin and Mayer,2000).New FDI project
19、s may invite complementary local private investments that provide inputs to,or use outputs of,the foreign firm. A substantial part of foreign investment projects is usually financed from local financial markets as well.It should be noted that the foreign capital inflows,by themselves,can lead to an
20、increase in domestic credit supply(Jansen,1995). FDI also beneficially affect the productive efficiency of domestic enterprises.Local firms have an opportunity to improve their efficiency by learning and interacting with foreign firms.FDI can also raise the quality of domestic human capital and impr
21、ove the know-how and managerial skills of local firms(the learning by watching effect).Moreover FDI stimulates the development and propagation of technological skills through multinational corporationsinternal transfers and through linkages and spillovers among firms (Borensztein et al,1998).Finally
22、 FDI also helps to increase local market competition, create modern job opportunities and increase market access of the developed world (Noorbakhsh,Paloni,Youssef,2001)all of which should ultimately contribute to economic growth in recipient countries. 3.Methodology And Analysis We follow recent stu
23、dies in the field(see Nyatepe-Coo,1998；De Bende-Nabende and Ford,1998；Mello,1999；Bende-Nabende et al.,2002,2003 and Li and Liu,2005 among others)by specifying an extended Cobb-Douglas production function(equation 1) to represent the production technology of an economy.Investment is decomposed in three types namely,domestic private investment,foreign direct investment and also government investment.Such disaggregation allows us to fully investigate the role of FDI in economic development and permits useful comparative insights among the different types of investment as well.
