The authors use a panel data fixed effect model to identify the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) for a large sample of 29 sub-Saharan African countries from 1980 to 2003. They test whether human capital development, defined by either literacy rates or economic freedom, and the incidence of war affect FDI flows to these countries. Combining these explanatory variables to several widely used control variables, it was found that the literacy rate (human capital), freedom (political rights and civil rights) and the incidence of war are important FDI determinants. The results confirm our expected signs: FDI inflows respond positively to the literacy rate and to improvements in political rights and civil liberties; war events, by contrast, exert strong negative effects on FDI. For robustness, the model is estimated for religious groupings of sub-Saharan African countries.

This paper examines causalities among foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth (GTH), and financial development proxied by both equity market size (EQM) and bank credit to private sectors (BANK). We use a structural cointegration model with a vector error correction (VEC) mechanism to test for the short-term dynamics of the model. The results show that there is a reinforcing causal relationship between FDI and EQM, and between EQM and GTH in the short term, and that these variables cointegrate in the long term. As far as practical implications are concerned, the results reinforce that developed financial markets are an essential precondition for the positive impact of FDI on economic growth, reflecting host countries' ability to exploit FDI more efficiently. Moreover, the paper provides further substance for the notion that a country with a well-developed financial market gains significantly from FDI inflow. JEL Classifications: C32; F43; O16, O53

This paper attempts to test the impact of foreign capital inflow; foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment (FPI)) on economic growth in developed and emerging economies. It also explores whether this inflow generate synergies in boosting economic growth. A cross-sectional time series growth regression was used for 21 developed and 19 emerging economies sample from 1980 to 2012. The Generalized-Method of Moments (GMM) estimators developed for dynamic models of panel data were used to avoid spurious conclusions and to add robustness and inferences correction to our results, and to deal with the econometric problem of heteroskedastic error of unknown functional form. Analysis revealed mixed results for the sample. For the initial FDI and FPI impact on growth, FDI poses a positive and significant influence, while FPI reveals a negative and significant influence in both samples. In addition, the results on the population proxy support the classical model where higher growth rate of population would initiates economic progress, while the results for the saving growth proxy support the saving-led growth phenomenon; where higher saving rate would accelerate economic growth. It was also found that the Market Capitalization (MC) proxy was positively correlated with economic growth in both samples, while the results of the stock trading proxy indicate that private capital inflows had a positive effect on growth only for the developed economies. The FPI results indicated that the presence of FPI inflows may not be a precondition to produce a positive spillover effect in both sample economies. Interestingly, we observed that the interactions between FPI and the Market Capitalization (MC), Stock Trading, and growth have provided evidence that equity markets advancements do have positive contributions toward attracting more capital inwards to the host country. Analysis also showed that FDI inflows augment domestic resources of most economies, and hence boosting economic growth. As policy implication, governments should be aware that market liberalization polices would have a different influence on inward net capital based on the composition of the capital inflows desired and the level of economic development, reflecting the necessity of capturing a targeted financial market threshold in order to stimulate capital control to attract FDI and FPI. In emerging economies, the interaction term (FPI*MC) implies that catching a threshold of equity market development would have a positive impact on higher levels of capital inflows, hence countries with advanced equity markets tend to gain more welfare from FPI capital inflows.

This paper examines the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the real exchange rate for low-income countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, using a panel data approach and Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) method. The results show that while the depreciation of the real exchange rate draws more FDI to Sub-Saharan African countries, the real exchange rate volatility causes greater instability in FDI inflows to these countries. The results are robust across different measures and model specifications. In addition, we conclude that the use of the pegged exchange rate as an incentive to attract FDI inflow, in the presence of increasing real exchange rate instability, creates greater price instability, as a result, FDI inflows are largely influenced by the real exchange rate.

This article tests for the causal direct and interactive association between capital inflow, aid and domestic savings, and the trade-led growth nexus within the context of a market-oriented economy. We applied the Toda-Yamamoto (1995) causality test which eludes the shortfalls associated with the standard Granger (1969) causality test. The MWALD results revealed bi-directional causality between aid and growth and between trade openness and growth. One way causality is concluded between aid and openness, where the former Granger causes the latter. The reverse is not correct. As practical implications, the results reinforce that aid and trade openness are predominant conditions for economic growth. Given the shortfall in domestic savings, capital inflow can be motivated by investing in export oriented sectors to have improved competiveness. More innovative mechanisms are needed to increase the contribution of aids towards education and infrastructure. For trade, technical support programs are needed, i.e., building public awareness on trade strategies, assessing periodically the legislations of trade, and upgrading the capacities of local businesses. JEL Classifications: C32; F43, O11, F35