Microeconomic Consequences and Macroeconomic Causes of Foreign Direct Investment in Southern African Economies

Lederman, Daniel ; Mengistae, Taye ; Xu, Lixin Colin

关键词: ACCOUNTING;    ADVANCED ECONOMIES;    AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS;    AGENCY PROBLEMS;    AMOUNT OF CAPITAL;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5416
RP-ID  :  WPS5416

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The causes and consequences of foreigndirect investment (FDI) in developing countries remains asubject of debate among researchers and policymakers alike.The authors use international data and a new micro-data setof firms in thirteen Southern African Developing Countries(SADCs) to investigate the benefits and determinants of FDIin this region. FDI appears to have facilitated localdevelopment in the SADC region. Foreign firms tend toperform better than domestic firms, tend to be larger, arelocated in richer and better-governed countries and incountries with more competitive financial intermediaries,and they are more likely to export than domestic firms. Theyalso exhibit positive spillover effects to domestic firms.Relying on a standard model to predict the country-level FDIinflows per capita, the authors find that SADC is attractingtheir expected level of FDI inflows, at least relative toits income level, human capital, demographic structure,institutions, and economic track record. There are somedifferences between SADC and the rest of the world in FDIbehavior: in SADC, the income level is less important andopenness more so. The authors use two comparison groups tocompare with SADC to shed light on why other regions haveattracted more FDI per capita than SADC. The factors thatexplain SADC s low FDI inflows are economic fundamentals(e.g., previous growth rates, average income, phone density,and the adult share of population).