Does Foreign Direct Investment Accelerate Economic Growth?

Maria Carkovic and Ross Levine

University of Minnesota

May, 2002

Abstract: This paper uses new statistical techniques and two new databases to reassess the relationship
between economic growth and FDI. After resolving biases plaguing past work, we find that the
exogenous component of FDI does not exert a robust, independent influence on growth.

* The corresponding author is Levine: Finance Department, Carlson School of Management, University of
Minnesota, 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455; [email protected]. We thank Norman
Loayza for helpful statistical advice and Stephen Bond for the use of his DPD program.
 1

I. Introduction

With the drying-up of commercial bank lending to developing economies in the 1980s, most countries

eased restrictions on foreign direct investment (FDI) and many aggressively offered tax incentives and subsidies to

attract foreign capital (Aitken and Harrison, 1999; World Bank, 1997a,b). Along with these policy changes, there

was a surge of non-commercial bank private capital flows to developing economies in the 1990s. Private capital

flows to emerging market economies exceeded $320 billion in 1996 and reached almost $200 billion in 2000. Even

the 2000 figure is almost four times larger than the peak commercial bank lending years of the 1970s and early

1980s. Furthermore, FDI now accounts for over 60 percent of private capital flows. While the explosion of FDI

flows is unmistakable, the growth effects remain unclear.

The economic rationale for offering special incentives to attract FDI frequently derives from the belief that

foreign investment produces externalities in the form of technology transfers and spillovers. Romer (1993), for

example, argues that there are important “idea gaps” between rich and poor countries. He notes that foreign

investment can ease the transfer of technological and business know-how to poorer countries. These transfers may

have substantial spillover effects for the entire economy. Thus, foreign investment may boost the productivity of

all firms -- not just those receiving foreign capital (Rappaport, 2000). While there are sound conceptual reasons for

believing that FDI can ignite economic growth, the empirical evidence is divided.

Firm-level studies of particular countries often find that FDI does not boost economic growth and these

studies frequently do not find positive spillovers running from foreign-owned to domestic-owned firms. Aitken and

Harrison’s (1999) influential study finds no evidence of a positive technology spillover from foreign firms to

domestically owned ones in Venezuela between 1979 and 1989. Similarly, Germidis (1977), Haddad and Aitken

(1993), and Mansfield and Romeo (1980) find that FDI does not accelerate growth.1 Taken together, firm-level

studies do not lend much support for the view that FDI accelerates overall economic growth.2

1
While Blomstrom (1986) finds that Mexican sectors with a higher degree of foreign ownership exhibit faster productivity
growth, the study – and similar studies -- suffer from a critical identification problem: if foreign investment gravitates toward
more productive industries, the observed positive correlation will overstate the positive impact of FDI on growth. Aitken and
Harrison (1999) solve this problem and find no evidence of a positive technology spillover.
2
Also, see Aitken, Hanson, and Harrison (1997), De Mello (1997), Harrison (1996), and Wheeler and Mody (1992).
 2

Unlike the microeconomic evidence, macroeconomic studies – using aggregate FDI flows for a broad

cross-section of countries – generally suggest a positive role for FDI in generating economic growth especially in

particular environments (De Gregorio, 1992). For instance, Borensztein, De Gregorio, and Lee (1998) argue that

FDI has a positive growth-effect when the country has a highly educated workforce that allows it to exploit FDI

spillovers. While Blomstrom, Lipsey, and Zejan (1994) find no evidence that education is critical, they argue that

FDI has a positive growth-effect when the country is sufficiently rich. In turn, Alfaro, Chandra, Kalemli-Ozcan,

and Sayek. (2000) find that FDI promotes economic growth in economies with sufficiently developed financial

markets, while Balasubramanyam, Salisu, and Dapsoford (1996) stress that trade openness is crucial for obtaining

the growth-effects of FDI.

The macroeconomic findings on growth and FDI must be viewed skeptically, however. Existing studies do

not fully control for simultaneity bias, country-specific effects, and the routine use of lagged dependent variables in

growth regressions.3 These weaknesses can bias the coefficient estimates as well as the coefficient standard errors.

Thus, the profession needs to reassess the macroeconomic evidence with econometric procedures that eliminate

these potential biases.

This paper uses new statistical techniques and two new databases to reassess the relationship between

economic growth and FDI. First, based on a recent World Bank dataset (Kraay, Loayza, Serven, and Ventura,

1999), we construct a panel dataset with data averaged over each of the seven 5-year periods between 1960 and

1995. We also confirm the results using new FDI data from the International Monetary Fund’s World (IMF)

Methodologically, we use the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) panel estimator designed by

Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1997) to extract consistent and efficient estimates of the impact

of FDI flows on economic growth. Unlike past work, the GMM panel estimator exploits the time-series variation

in the data, accounts for unobserved country-specific effects, allows for the inclusion of lagged dependent variables

as regressors, and controls for endogeneity of all the explanatory variables, including international capital flows.

Thus, this paper advances the literature on growth and FDI by enhancing the quality and quantity of the data and by

using econometric techniques that ameliorate biases.

 3

Investigating the impact of foreign capital on economic growth has important policy implications. If FDI

has a positive impact on economic growth after controlling for endogeneity and other growth determinants, then

this weakens arguments for restricting foreign investment. If, however, we find that FDI does not exert a positive

impact on growth, then this would suggest a reconsideration of the rapid expansion of tax incentives, infrastructure

subsidies, import duty exemptions, and other measures that countries have adopted to attract FDI. While no single

paper will resolve these policy issues, this paper contributes to these debates.

This paper finds that the exogenous component of FDI does not exert a robust, positive influence on

economic growth. By accounting for simultaneity, country-specific effects, and lagged dependent variables as

regressors, we reconcile the microeconomic and macroeconomic evidence. Specifically, there is not reliable cross-

country empirical evidence supporting the claim that FDI per se accelerates economic growth.

This paper’s findings are robust to (a) econometric specifications that allow FDI to influence growth

differently depending on national income, school attainment, domestic financial development, and openness to

international trade, (b) alternative estimation procedures, (c) different conditioning information sets and samples,

(d) the use of portfolio inflows instead of FDI, and (e) the use of alternative databases on FDI. The data produce

consistent results: there is not a robust, causal link running from FDI to economic growth.

This paper’s results, however, should not be viewed as suggesting that foreign capital is irrelevant for long-

run growth. Blomstrom, Lipsey, and Zejan (1994), Borensztein, De Gregorio, and Lee (1998) show, and this paper

confirms, that there are many econometric specifications in which FDI is positively linked with long-run growth.

FDI may even be a good signal of economic success as emphasized by Blomstrom, Lipsey, and Zejan (1994).

More generally, “openness”—defined in a less narrow sense than FDI inflows -- may be crucial for economic

success, as suggested by other research (e.g., Landes, 1997; Henry, 2000; Bekaert, Harvey, and Lundblad, 2001;

Klein, Michael, and Giovanni Olivei, 2001). Rather, than examine these broad issues, this paper’s contribution is

much narrower: after controlling for the joint determination of growth and foreign capital flows, country-specific

factors, and other growth determinants, the data do not suggest a strong independent impact of FDI on economic

growth. In terms of policy implications, this paper’s analyses – along with the influential microeconomic study by

3
While Blomstrom, Lipsey, and Zejan (1994) find that FDI Granger-causes economic growth, Kholdy (1995) disagrees.
 4

Aitken and Harrison (1999) – do not support special tax breaks and subsidies to attract foreign capital. Instead, the

literature suggests that sound policies encourage economic growth and also provide an attractive environment for

foreign investment.

Before continuing, it is worth emphasizing this paper’s boundaries. We do not discuss the determinants of

FDI. Instead, we extract the exogenous component of FDI and using lagged values of the regressors. Also, we do

not examine any particular country in depth. We use data on 72 countries over the period 1960-95. Thus, our

investigation provides evidence based on a cross-section of countries.

II. Econometric Framework

This section describes two econometric methods that we use to assess the relationship between FDI inflows and

economic growth. We first use simple ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions with one observation per country

over the 1960-95 period. Second, we use a dynamic panel procedure with data averaged over five-year periods, so

that there are seven possible observations per country over the 1960-95 period.

A. OLS framework

The pure cross-sectional, OLS analysis uses data averaged over 1960-95, such that there is one observation

per country, and heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors. The basic regression takes the form:

GROWTHi = α + βFDIi + γ‘ [CONDITIONING SET]i + εi, (1)

where the dependent variable, GROWTH, equals real per capita GDP growth, FDI is gross private capital inflows

to a country, and CONDITIONING SET represents a vector of conditioning information.

B. Motivation for the Dynamic Panel Model

The dynamic panel approach offers advantages to OLS and also improves on previous efforts to examine

the FDI-growth link using panel procedures. First, estimation using panel data -- that is pooled cross-section and

time-series data – allows us to exploit the time-series nature of the relationship between FDI and growth. Second,

in a pure cross-country instrumental variable regression, any unobserved country-specific effect becomes part of the

error term, which may bias the coefficient estimates as we explain in detail below. Our panel procedures control

for country-specific effects. Third, unlike existing cross-country studies, our panel estimator (a) controls for the

potential endogeneity of all explanatory variables and (b) accounts explicitly for the biases induced by including
 5

initial real per capita GDP in the growth regression. These weaknesses may bias both the coefficient estimates and

their standard errors, potentially leading to erroneous conclusions.

C. Detailed Presentation of the Econometric Methodology

We use the Generalized-Method-of-Moments (GMM) estimators developed for dynamic panel data that

were introduced by Holtz-Eakin, Newey, and Rosen (1990), Arellano and Bond (1991), and Arellano and Bover

(1995). Our panel consists of data for a maximum of 72 countries over the period 1960-1995, though capital flow

data does not begin until 1970 for many countries. We average data over non-overlapping, five-year periods, so

that data permitting there are seven observations per country (1961-65; 1966-70; etc.). The subscript “t” designates

one of these five-year averages. Consider the following regression equation,

y i ,t − y i ,t −1 = (α − 1) y i ,t −1 + β ' X i ,t + ηi + ε i ,t (2)

where y is the logarithm of real per capita GDP, X represents the set of explanatory variables (other than lagged per

capita GDP), η is an unobserved country-specific effect, ε is the error term, and the subscripts i and t represent

country and time period, respectively. Specifically, X includes FDI inflows to a country as well as other possible

growth determinants. We also use time dummies to account for period-specific effects, though these are omitted

from the equations in the text. We can rewrite equation (2).

y i , t = α y i , t −1 + β ' X i , t + η i + ε i , t (3)

To eliminate the country-specific effect, take first-differences of equation (3).

( ) ( ) (
y i ,t − y i ,t −1 = α y i , t −1 − y i ,t − 2 + β ' X i ,t − X i , t −1 + ε i , t − ε i , t −1 )
The use of instruments is required to deal with (1) the endogeneity of the explanatory variables, and, (2) the

problem that by construction the new error term ε i ,t − ε i ,t − 1 is correlated with the lagged dependent variable,

yi ,t − 1 − yi ,t − 2 . Under the assumptions that (a) the error term is not serially correlated, and (b) the explanatory

variables are weakly exogenous (i.e., the explanatory variables are uncorrelated with future realizations of the error

term), the GMM dynamic panel estimator uses the following moment conditions.

[ (
E y i , t − s ⋅ ε i , t − ε i , t −1 )] = 0 for s ≥ 2; t = 3, ..., T (4)
 6

[ (
E X i , t − s ⋅ ε i , t − ε i , t −1 )] = 0 for s ≥ 2; t = 3, ..., T (5)

We refer to the GMM estimator based on these conditions as the difference estimator.

There are, however, conceptual and statistical shortcomings with this difference estimator. Conceptually,

we would also like to study the cross-country relationship between financial development and per capita GDP

growth, which is eliminated in the difference estimator. Statistically, Alonso-Borrego and Arellano (1996) and

Blundell and Bond (1997) show that when the explanatory variables are persistent over time, lagged levels make

weak instruments for the regression equation in differences. Instrument weakness influences the asymptotic and

small-sample performance of the difference estimator. Asymptotically, the variance of the coefficients rises. In

small samples, weak instruments can bias the coefficients.

To reduce the potential biases and imprecision associated with the usual estimator, we use a new estimator

that combines in a system the regression in differences with the regression in levels [Arellano and Bover’s 1995

and Blundell and Bond 1997]. The instruments for the regression in differences are the same as above. The

instruments for the regression in levels are the lagged differences of the corresponding variables. These are

appropriate instruments under the following additional assumption: although there may be correlation between the

levels of the right-hand side variables and the country-specific effect in equation (3), there is no correlation between

the differences of these variables and the country-specific effect, i.e.,

[ ] [
E y i ,t + p ⋅ η i = E y i ,t + q ⋅ η i ] (6)
[ ] [
and E X i ,t + p ⋅ η i = E X i ,t + q ⋅ η i ] for all p and q

The additional moment conditions for the second part of the system (the regression in levels) are:

[ ]
E ( yi ,t − s − yi ,t − s − 1 ) ⋅ (η i + ε i ,t ) = 0 for s = 1 (7)

E[( X i ,t − s − X i ,t − s − 1 ) ⋅ (η i + ε i ,t )] = 0 for s = 1 (8)

Thus, we use the moment conditions presented in equations (4), (5), (7), and (8), use instruments lagged two period

(t-2), and employ a GMM procedure to generate consistent and efficient parameter estimates.4,5

4
We use a variant of the standard two-step system estimator that controls for heteroskedasticity. Typically, the system
estimator treats the moment conditions as applying to a particular time period. This provides for a more flexible variance-
covariance structure of the moment conditions because the variance for a given moment condition is not assumed to be the
 7

Consistency of the GMM estimator depends on the validity of the instruments. To address this issue we

consider two specification tests suggested by Arellano and Bond (1991), Arellano and Bover (1995), and Blundell

and Bond (1997). The first is a Sargan test of over-identifying restrictions, which tests the overall validity of the

instruments by analyzing the sample analog of the moment conditions used in the estimation process. The second

test examines the hypothesis that the error term ε i ,t is not serially correlated. In both the difference regression and

the system difference-level regression we test whether the differenced error term is second-order serially correlated

(by construction, the differenced error term is probably first-order serially correlated even if the original error term

is not).

III. Data

We collected data on FDI from two sources. First, we use data from the World Bank’s ongoing project to

improve the accuracy, breadth, and length of national accounts data (Kraay, Loayza, Serven, and Ventura, 1999).

Second, we confirm the findings using the IMF’s World Economic Output (2001) data on openness.

FDI equals gross FDI inflows as a share of GDP. We confirm the results using FDI inflows per capita.6

GROWTH equals the rate of real per capita GDP growth.

To assess the link between international capital flows and economic growth and its sources, we control for

other growth determinants. Initial income per capita equals the logarithm of real per capita GDP at the start of each

period, so that it equals 1960 in the pure cross-country analyses and the first year of the five-year period in the

same across time. This approach has the drawback that the number of overidentifying conditions increases dramatically as the
number of time periods increases. Consequently, this typical two-step estimator tends to induce over-fitting and potentially
biased standard errors. To limit the number of overidentifying conditions, we follow Calderon, Chong and Loayza (2000) and
apply each moment condition to all available periods. This reduces the over-fitting bias of the two-step estimator. However,
applying this modified estimator reduces the number of periods by one. While in the standard estimator time dummies and the
constant are used as instruments for the second period, this modified estimator does not allow the use of the first and second
period. We confirm the results using the standard system estimator.
5
Recall that we assume that the explanatory variables are “weakly exogenous.” This means they can be affected by current
and past realizations of the growth rate but not future realizations of the error term. Weak exogeneity does not mean that
agents do not take into account expected future growth in their decision to undertake FDI; it just means that unanticipated
shocks to future growth do not influence current FDI. We statistically assess the validity of this assumption.
6
Countries in the sample: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Central African Republic, Canada,
Switzerland, Chile, Cameroon, Congo, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Algeria (DZA),
Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Gambia, Great Britain, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Greece, Haiti, Honduras,
Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Sri Lanka, Lesotho, Mexico, Malta,
Malaysia, Mauritius, Niger, Nicaragua, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Papua New
 8

panel estimates. Average years of schooling equals the average years of schooling of the working age population.

Inflation equals the average growth rate in the consumer price index. Government size equals the size of the

government as a share of GDP. Openness to trade equals exports plus imports relative to GDP. Black market

premium equals the black market premium in the foreign exchange market. Private Credit equals credit by

financial intermediaries to the private sector as a share of GDP (Beck, Levine, Loayza, 2000).

Table 1 present summary statistics and correlations using data averaged over the 1960-95 period, one

observation per country. There is considerable cross-country variation. For instance, the mean per capita growth

rate for the sample is 1.9 percent per annum, with a standard deviation of 1.8. The maximum growth rate was

enjoyed by Korea (7.2), while Niger and Zaire suffered with a per capital growth rate of worse than –2.7 percent

per annum. In terms of five-year periods, the minimum value is –10.0 percent growth (Rwanda, 1990-95) and a

number of countries experienced five-year growth spurts of greater than 8 percent per annum. The data also

suggest large variation in FDI. The average was 1.1 percent of GDP. Malaysia and Trinidad and Tobago had FDI

inflows of more than 3.6 percent of GDP over the entire 1960-95 period, while Sudan essentially had no FDI over

this period. In terms of five-year period, the maximum value of FDI was 7.3 percent of GDP (Malaysia, 1990-95).

The variability over five-year periods is much larger than when using lower frequency data. Although Table 1 does

not suggest a simple, positive relationship between FDI and growth, we will see that there are many growth

regression specifications that yield a positive coefficient on FDI.

IV. Results

This paper estimates the effects of FDI inflows on economic growth after controlling for other growth

determinants and the potential biases induced by endogeneity, country-specific effects, and the inclusion of initial

income as a regressor. Moreover, we examine whether the growth-effects of FDI depend on the level of

educational attainment of the recipient country, the level of economic development of the recipient country, the

level of financial development of the recipient country, and trade openness.

Guinea, Portugal, Paraguay, Rwanda, Spain, Sweden, Senegal, Sierra Leone, El Salvador, Suriname, Sweden, Syria, Togo,
Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, United States, Venezuela, South Africa, Zaire, Zimbabwe.
 9

A. Findings

Table 2 shows that the exogenous component of FDI does not exert a reliable, positive impact on economic

growth. The table presents OLS and Panel estimates using a variety of conditioning information sets. In the OLS

regressions, initial income and average years of schooling enter significantly and with the signs and magnitudes

found in many pure cross-country regressions. FDI does not enter these growth regressions significantly. When we

move to the five-year panel data, FDI enters three of the regressions significantly but not the other four. FDI enters

the regressions significantly and positively in the regression that only includes initial income per capita and average

years of schooling as control variables. FDI remains significantly and positively linked with growth when

controlling for inflation or government size. However, FDI becomes insignificant once we control for trade

openness, the black market premium, or financial development. Furthermore, the coefficient on FDI is unstable in

the panel regressions, ranging from 323 (when controlling for initial income, schooling, and inflation) to –34 (when

controlling for initial income, schooling, and financial development). This instability is not due to changes in

sample. When the regressions are restricted to have the same number of observations, the coefficient on FDI

remains unstable.7 Note that the Sargan and serial correlation tests do not reject the econometric specification. The

Table 2 regressions do not reject the null hypothesis that FDI does not exert an independent influence on economic

growth.

We also assess whether the impact of FDI on growth depends importantly on the stock of human capital.

Borensztein et al. (1998) find that in countries with low levels of human capital the direct effect of FDI on growth

is negative, though sometimes insignificant. But, once human capital passes a threshold, they find that FDI has a

positive growth-effect. The rationale is that only countries with sufficiently high levels of human capital can

exploit the technological spillovers associated with FDI. Thus, we include the term, FDI*SCHOOL, which equals

the product of FDI and the average years of schooling of the working age population.

7
Also, note that the coefficient on FDI is frequently, though not always, an order of magnitude larger in the panel than the OLS
regressions. We speculate that this is due to the use of more volatile data. When we restrict the sample to richer countries
(which are also countries with less volatile growth rates), the panel coefficient on FDI approaches that in the OLS regressions.
Similarly, when we use the IMF’s World Economic Outlook data, which contains fewer very poor, highly volatile countries
than the World Bank data, the panel coefficients are closer to the coefficients from the OLS regressions. These estimates are
consistent with the view that short-run fluctuations in the investment environment, and hence FDI, are associated with large,
 10

Table 3 shows that the lack of an impact of FDI on growth does not depend on the stock of human capital.

In the OLS regressions, FDI and the interaction term do not enter significantly in any of the six regressions. In the

panel regressions, FDI and the interaction term occasionally enter significantly, but even here the results do not

conform to theory. Namely, when FDI and the interaction do enter significantly, the term on FDI is significant and

the coefficient on the interaction term is negative. This suggests that FDI is only growth enhancing in countries

with low educational attainment. These counter intuitive results may result from including schooling, FDI, and the

interaction term simultaneously.8 When excluding schooling, however, the regressions do not yield robust results

with a positive coefficient on the interaction term. Finally, we also examined the importance of human capital

using an alternative specification. Instead of including the interaction term, FDI*schooling, we created a dummy

variable, D, that takes on the value one if the country has greater than average schooling and zero otherwise. We

then included the term FDI*D. This specification also indicated that the impact of FDI on growth does not robustly

vary with the level of educational attainment. While some may interpret the results in Table 3 as suggesting that

the coefficient on FDI becomes significant and positive in the panel regressions when controlling for the interaction

with schooling, we note that (i) the interaction terms is frequently insignificant, (ii) the signs do not conform with

theory, (iii) and the OLS regressions suggest a fragile relationship.

Table 4 shows that there is not a reliable link between growth and FDI when allowing for the impact of FDI

on growth to depend on the level of income per capita. Blomstrom, Lipsey, and Zejan (1994) argue that very poor

countries – countries that are very technologically backward – are not able to exploit FDI. They find that very poor

countries do not enjoy substantial growth benefits from FDI, but sufficiently rich countries do. Thus, we re-ran the

regressions using the interaction term, FDI*income per capita. This interaction does not robustly enter the growth

regressions significantly.9

though temporary, booms and busts in economic performance; thus, the use of higher frequency data produces larger (though
still insignificant) coefficients on FDI than pure cross-country regressions with data averaged over the 1960-95 period.
8
This conjecture is supported by the observation that no country passes the inflection point. For instance, from the panel
results in regression six, 351/108.6 equals 3.23, but the highest level of school attainment is 2.4 in Denmark.
9
The only regression where the interaction enters significantly is the regression controlling only for the black market premium.
Even here, however, the interaction term enters negatively, and does not alter the relationship for hardly any countries in the
sample because the cut-off is so high, e.g., the logarithm of real per capita GDP would have to be greater than, 1114.7/110.4 =
10.1, which is the case for only a handful of countries during the end of the sample.
 11

Table 5 assesses whether the level of financial development in the recipient country influences the growth-

FDI relationship. Better-developed financial systems improve capital allocation and stimulate growth (Beck,

Levine, and Loayza, 2000). Capital inflows to a country with a well developed financial may, therefore, produce

substantial growth effects. Thus, we re-ran the regressions using the interaction term, FDI*Credit.

The OLS regressions in Table 5 suggest that FDI has a positive growth effect in sufficiently financially

developed economies, which confirms the Alfaro et al. (2001) findings. Economically, however, these results are

not as compelling as the t-statistics suggest. When we ask the question, at what level of financial development does

FDI produce a positive impact on economic growth, the answer is none. For example, from Table 5 regression 1

(OLS), the cut-off is 417/124, which equals 3.4, so that countries where the logarithm of Private Credit is greater

than 3.4 have a positive growth-FDI relationship. But, the maximum value of the logarithm of Private Credit in the

sample is 0.35 (Switzerland).

Moreover, the panel evidence is even weaker. The panel regressions never demonstrated a significant

coefficient on the FDI-financial development interaction term. On net, these results do not provide much support

for the view that FDI flows to financially developed economies exert an exogenous impact on growth.

Table 7 assesses whether the relationship between FDI and growth varies with the degree of trade

openness. Balasubramanyam, Salisu, and Sapsford (1996, 1999) and Kawai (1994) find evidence that FDI is

particularly good for economic growth in countries with open trade regimes. Thus, we include an interaction term

of FDI and Openness to Trade in the Table 7 regressions. The FDI-Trade interaction term does not enter

significantly in any of the OLS regressions. While the FDI-Trade interaction term enters significantly at the 0.10

level in three of the panel regressions, it enters insignificantly in the other three. In sum, we do not find a robust

link between FDI and growth even when allowing this relationship to vary with trade openness.

While FDI flows may go hand-in-hand with economic success, they do not tend to exert an independent

growth effect. Thus, by correcting statistical shortcoming with past work this paper reconciles the broad-cross

country evidence with microeconomic studies.

 12

B. Sensitivity Analyses

We conduct a number of sensitivity analyses to assess the robustness of the results. First, we use a standard

instrumental variable estimator in a pure cross-country context (one observation per country) and reexamine

whether cross-country variations in the exogenous component of FDI explain cross-country variations in the rate of

economic growth. We use generalized method of moments (GMM).10 We use linear moment conditions, which

amounts to the requirement that the instrumental variables (Z) are uncorrelated with the error term in the growth

regression in equation (1). The economic meaning of these conditions is that the instrumental variables can only

affect GROWTH through FDI and the other variables in the conditioning information set. To test this condition,

we use Hansen’s (1982) test of the overidentifying restrictions, and we cannot reject the given moment conditions.11

The GMM results confirm this paper’s results.

Second, we confirm this paper’s findings using two alternative estimators. Instead of using the Calderon,

Chong and Loayza’s (2000) method of limiting the possibility of over-fitting by restricting the dimensionality of

the instrument set (described above), we use the standard system estimator. We confirm this paper’s results. In

addition, although the standard estimator and the Calderon, Chong and Loayza’s (2000) modification are two-step

estimators where the variance-covariance matrix is constructed from the first-stage residuals to allow for non-

spherical distributions of the error term and thereby get more efficient estimates in the second stage, these two-step

GMM estimators sometimes converges to their asymptotic distributions slowly. This tends to bias the t-statistics

upward! Nonetheless, we re-ran the regressions using the first-stage results, which assume homoskedasticity and

independence of the error terms. We again confirm this paper’s results.

Third, we used alternative samples and specifications. When using a common sample across all of the

regressions, this does not change the results. Similarly, using the natural logarithm of FDI does not alter the

10
Two-stage instrumental variable procedures produce the same conclusions.
11
Intuitively, the fact that we have more moment conditions (instruments) than parameters means that estimation could be done
with fewer conditions. Thus, we can estimate the error term under a set of moment conditions that excludes one instrumental
variable at a time; we can then analyze if each estimated error term is uncorrelated with the excluded instrumental variable.
The null hypothesis of Hansen’s test is that the overidentifying restrictions are valid, that is, the instrumental variables are not
correlated with the error term. The test statistic is simply the sample size times the value attained for the objective function at
the GMM estimate (called the J-statistic). Hansen’s test statistic is distributed as χ2 with degrees of freedom equal to the
number of moment conditions minus the number of estimated parameters.
 13

conclusions. Limiting the sample to developing countries, i.e., countries not classified by the World Bank as high-

income economies, does not alter the findings. We also considered exchange rate volatility, changes in the terms of

trade in the regression, and various combinations of the conditioning information set (Levine and Renelt, 1992).

Including these factors did not alter the conclusions. This paper does not prove that FDI is unimportant. Rather,

this cross-country analysis – in conjunction with microeconomic evidence -- reduces confidence in the belief that

FDI accelerate GDP growth.

Fourth, we examine whether FDI exerts on impact on productivity growth using the Easterly and Levine (2001)

measure of total factor productivity (TFP). We find that FDI does not exert a robust impact on TFP.

Fifth, we examined portfolio inflows, and find that they do not have a positive impact on growth.

Finally, we repeated the analyses using the IMF’s (World Economic Outlook, 2001) new database on

international capital flows. These data were cleaned by the IMF and extended through the end of 2000. The results

are very similar to those reported above, so we do not report them.

V. Conclusion

FDI has increased dramatically since the 1980s. Furthermore, many countries have offered special tax

incentives and subsidies to attract foreign capital. An influential economic rationale for treating foreign capital

favorably is that FDI and portfolio inflows encourage technology transfers that accelerate overall economic growth

in recipient countries. While microeconomic studies generally, though not uniformly, shed pessimistic evidence on

the growth-effects of foreign capital, many macroeconomic studies find a positive link between FDI and growth.

Previous macroeconomic studies, however, do not fully control for endogeneity, country-specific effects, and the

inclusion of lagged dependent variables in the growth regression.

After resolving many of the statistical problems plaguing past macroeconomic studies and confirming

our results using two new databases on international capital flows, we find that FDI inflows do not exert an

independent influence on economic growth. Thus, while sound economic policies may spur both growth and FDI,

the results are inconsistent with the view the FDI exerts a positive impact on growth that is independent of other

growth determinants.
 14

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Table 1. Summary Statistics

Mean Std. Dev. Min. Value Max. Value

Growth rate 1.89 1.81 -2.81 7.16

School (years of school in 1960) 5.01 2.51 1.20 11.07
Inflation rate 0.16 0.18 0.04 0.91
Government size (Government Consumption/GDP) 0.15 0.05 0.07 0.31
Openness to trade ((Exports + Imports)/GDP) 0.60 0.37 0.14 2.32
Black market premium 0.23 0.49 0.00 2.77
Private Credit 0.40 0.29 0.04 1.41
Foreign direct investment (as a share of GDP) 0.011 0.010 0.000 0.043

Correlation Matrix
Growth School1 Inflation2 Gov. size1 Openness Black mkt Private FDI
to trade1 premium 2 Credit1

Growth 1
Average years of schooling1 0.4452* 1
Inflation2 -0.2833* -0.0752 1
Government size1 0.2402* 0.4151* -0.2818* 1
Openness to trade1 0.21 0.04 -0.3586* 0.3316* 1
Black market premium 2 -0.4341* -0.3994* 0.3800* -0.2019 0.0698 1
Private Credit1 0.5528* 0.6791* -0.4309* 0.3921* 0.028 -0.5995* 1
Foreign direct investment 0.17 0.12 -0.21 0.2335 0.5557* -0.0076 0.0457 1

Notes:
1. In the correlations, this variable is included as Ln(variable).
2. In the correlations, this variable is included as Ln(1 + variable).
3. Based on a common sample of 64 countries using the average over the 1960-95 period, so one observation per country.
* - Indicates significant at the 0.05 level.
Table 2: Growth and Foreign Direct Investment

Dependent Variable: Real Per Capita GDP Growth

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Conditioning information se OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel

Constant 6.797 -0.723 7.732 9.324 7.363 -10.640 6.222 5.646 7.103 2.391 11.579 5.256 11.702 2.701
(0.009) (0.896) (0.002) (0.314) (0.015) (0.303) (0.074) (0.259) (0.006) (0.716) (0.000) (0.332) (0.000) (0.668)

Initial income per capita1 -1.175 -0.252 -1.226 -3.026 -1.274 -1.522 -1.236 0.233 -1.191 -0.667 -1.414 0.720 -1.643 -0.508
(0.008) (0.854) (0.003) (0.254) (0.005) (0.500) (0.006) (0.822) (0.007) (0.708) (0.000) (0.415) (0.000) (0.679)

Average years of schooling2 2.752 2.551 2.774 8.629 2.979 6.770 2.934 0.096 2.661 2.480 1.840 -2.576 2.115 1.617
(0.000) (0.407) (0.000) (0.182) (0.000) (0.195) (0.000) (0.967) (0.001) (0.556) (0.003) (0.230) (0.001) (0.696)

Inflation2 -3.377 -0.887 1.398 -0.161

(0.034) (0.839) (0.355) (0.949)

Government size1 -0.083 -6.461 -0.854 -2.796

(0.878) (0.060) (0.127) (0.165)

Openness to trade1 0.193 4.830 0.427 1.664

(0.650) (0.000) (0.329) (0.375)

Black market premium2 -0.292 -0.590 -1.028 -1.505

(0.792) (0.645) (0.272) (0.285)

Private sector credit2 (1.397) 2.262 (1.714) (1.250)

(0.000) (0.027) (0.001) (0.333)

Foreign direct investment 12.553 202.167 2.852 322.933 16.598 215.245 10.677 17.045 12.558 220.854 14.854 -34.511 21.931 -9.434
(0.582) (0.006) (0.897) (0.051) (0.469) (0.049) (0.631) (0.748) (0.579) (0.160) (0.414) (0.609) (0.238) (0.917)

Number of observations3 68 279 68 270 68 273 67 277 66 260 67 246 64 242

R2 (adjusted) 0.238 0.287 0.238 0.258 0.209 0.437 0.510
Sargan test (p-value)4 0.098 0.770 0.756 0.299 0.302 0.304 0.191
Serial correlation test (p-value)5 0.939 0.922 0.897 0.580 0.805 0.234 0.256

Notes: P-values are in parentheses below estimates coefficient values.

1. In the regression, this variable is included as Ln(variable).
2. In the regression, this variable is included as Ln(1 + variable).
3. Panel estimations use 5-year periods.
4. The null hypothesis is that the instruments are not correlated with the residuals.
5. The null hypothesis is that the errors in the first difference regression exhibit no second order
serial correlation.
Table 3: Growth, Foreign Direct Investment and Education

Dependent Variable: Real Per Capita GDP Growth

1 2 3 4 5 6
Conditioning information set OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel

Constant 6.841 1.504 7.727 11.765 7.312 -21.189 6.050 6.882 7.250 -3.460 6.812 -4.611
(0.011) (0.857) (0.003) (0.252) (0.017) (0.120) (0.093) (0.179) (0.007) (0.651) (0.029) (0.513)

Initial income per capita 1 -1.175 -1.484 -1.226 -4.718 -1.281 -2.346 -1.238 -0.625 -1.190 -0.631 -1.391 -3.843
(0.008) (0.451) (0.003) (0.091) (0.005) (0.295) (0.007) (0.593) (0.007) (0.738) (0.002) (0.012)

Average years of schooling2 2.721 7.025 2.778 15.183 3.120 12.607 3.052 2.612 2.557 5.520 3.415 14.161
(0.001) (0.111) (0.000) (0.026) (0.002) (0.015) (0.000) (0.341) (0.006) (0.191) (0.001) (0.000)

Inflation 2 -3.378 -2.783 -3.812 -6.959

(0.035) (0.586) (0.052) (0.026)

Government size1 -0.122 -10.233 -0.555 -7.242

(0.837) (0.015) (0.388) (0.013)

Openness to trade1 0.199 4.012 -0.078 1.706

(0.644) (0.005) (0.871) (0.440)

Black market premium 2 -0.314 0.690 0.037 2.256

(0.782) (0.549) (0.977) (0.014)

Foreign direct investment 7.585 471.575 3.460 567.935 35.139 588.334 28.284 155.478 -2.463 681.882 46.078 351.000
(0.901) (0.010) (0.953) (0.028) (0.604) (0.004) (0.618) (0.040) (0.970) (0.000) (0.485) (0.000)

FDI * Schooling 3.350 -183.992 -0.411 -161.501 -12.179 -250.233 -11.905 -48.640 10.084 -243.945 -23.042 -108.606
(0.935) (0.036) (0.992) (0.198) (0.785) (0.063) (0.756) (0.232) (0.817) (0.000) (0.606) (0.014)

Number of observations3 68 279 68 270 66 273 67 277 66 260 65 248

R2 (adjusted) 0.226 0.275 0.226 0.247 0.197 0.258
Sargan test (p-value)4 0.340 0.690 0.828 0.286 0.324 0.144
5
Serial correlation test (p-value) 0.332 0.506 0.273 0.283 0.158 0.221

Notes: P-values are in parentheses below estimates coefficient values.

1. In the regression, this variable is included as Ln(variable).
2. In the regression, this variable is included as Ln(1 + variable).
3. Panel estimations use 5-year periods.
4. The null hypothesis is that the instruments are not correlated with the residuals.
5. The null hypothesis is that the errors in the first difference regression exhibit no second order
serial correlation.
Table 4: Growth, Foreign Direct Investment and Income Level

Dependent Variable: Real Per Capita GDP Growth

1 2 3 4 5 6
Conditioning information set OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel

Constant 4.609 -5.254 5.623 8.400 5.263 -15.806 4.493 4.792 5.029 -4.906 3.765 -3.550
(0.209) (0.459) (0.102) (0.446) (0.167) (0.213) (0.293) (0.410) (0.178) (0.562) (0.368) (0.675)

Initial income per capita1 -0.880 0.320 -0.942 -3.356 -0.939 -1.638 -0.961 -0.247 -0.918 -0.113 -1.002 -1.340
(0.115) (0.837) (0.071) (0.225) (0.101) (0.457) (0.090) (0.829) (0.100) (0.952) (0.072) (0.315)

2
Average years of schooling 2.698 2.731 2.723 10.933 2.998 8.922 2.901 2.240 2.635 4.043 3.205 6.488
(0.000) (0.377) (0.000) (0.075) (0.000) (0.057) (0.000) (0.391) (0.001) (0.327) (0.000) (0.018)

2
Inflation -3.354 -2.248 -4.078 -4.433
(0.034) (0.609) (0.034) (0.124)

1
Government size -0.282 -7.663 -0.662 -4.512
(0.627) (0.029) (0.288) (0.090)

1
Openness to trade 0.100 4.034 -0.239 2.918
(0.813) (0.005) (0.618) (0.173)

2
Black market premium -0.232 0.893 0.127 1.105
(0.840) (0.572) (0.920) (0.257)

Foreign direct investment 224.576 610.123 206.638 664.202 268.111 669.822 226.791 254.810 209.550 1114.655 322.879 311.729
(0.265) (0.055) (0.289) (0.149) (0.219) (0.178) (0.245) (0.421) (0.312) (0.030) (0.131) (0.137)

FDI * Income per capita -27.398 -53.443 -26.325 -46.457 -32.294 -56.910 -27.567 -22.900 -25.438 -110.359 -39.591 -30.888
(0.257) (0.202) (0.262) (0.463) (0.219) (0.385) (0.241) (0.607) (0.307) (0.043) (0.125) (0.312)

Number of observations3 68 279 68 270 65 273 67 277 66 260 65 248

2
R (adjusted) 0.237 0.286 0.240 0.257 0.206 0.367
4
Sargan test (p-value) 0.191 0.745 0.821 0.322 0.440 0.082
5
Serial correlation test (p-value) 0.553 0.871 0.935 0.680 0.405 0.587

Notes: P-values are in parentheses below estimates coefficient values.

1. In the regression, this variable is included as Ln(variable).
2. In the regression, this variable is included as Ln(1 + variable).
3. Panel estimations use 5-year periods.
4. The null hypothesis is that the instruments are not correlated with the residuals.
5. The null hypothesis is that the errors in the first difference regression exhibit no second order seria correlation.
Table 5: Growth, Foreign Direct Investment and Finance

Dependent Variable: Real Per Capita GDP Growth

1 2 3 4 5 6
Conditioning information set OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel

Constant 9.236 4.453 9.380 -7.651 9.609 -4.337 8.887 8.217 9.454 0.383 9.119 -4.088
(0.000) (0.592) (0.000) (0.146) (0.001) (0.508) (0.007) (0.094) (0.000) (0.935) (0.001) (0.627)

Initial income per capita1 -1.407 -0.724 -1.401 1.498 -1.479 1.780 -1.460 -0.743 -1.397 0.624 -1.465 -0.650
(0.000) (0.712) (0.000) (0.215) (0.000) (0.235) (0.001) (0.453) (0.001) (0.620) (0.001) (0.723)

Average years of schooling2 2.294 2.087 2.358 -0.596 2.483 -1.910 2.477 2.637 2.162 -1.030 2.503 3.060
(0.000) (0.630) (0.000) (0.813) (0.001) (0.550) (0.000) (0.240) (0.002) (0.746) (0.001) (0.458)

Inflation2 -1.730 -2.584 -1.118 -2.123

(0.222) (0.197) (0.464) (0.475)

Government size1 -0.061 1.600 -0.325 -4.397

(0.911) (0.326) (0.573) (0.071)

Openness to trade1 0.114 4.448 0.155 0.506

(0.753) (0.001) (0.714) (0.824)

Black market premium2 -0.732 -4.589 -1.162 -3.900

(0.336) (0.062) (0.100) (0.034)

Foreign direct investment -416.605 -340.106 -376.385 71.044 -402.970 -107.266 -402.532 -40.957 -380.217 -237.720 119.251 -300.341
(0.000) (0.222) (0.000) (0.624) (0.000) (0.431) (0.000) (0.775) (0.001) (0.263) (0.000) (0.046)

FDI * Credit 123.541 136.398 110.615 -8.229 120.562 41.469 119.495 33.787 113.364 62.675 93.643 84.242
(0.000) (0.100) (0.000) (0.855) (0.000) (0.347) (0.000) (0.429) (0.000) (0.218) (0.001) (0.133)

Number of observations3 67 269 67 264 65 263 66 267 65 250 64 242

R2 (adjusted) 0.441 0.447 0.442 0.456 0.432 0.451
Sargan test (p-value)4 0.043 0.012 0.034 0.116 0.070 0.306
Serial correlation test (p-value)5 0.787 0.992 0.206 0.356 0.213 0.145

Notes: P-values are in parentheses below estimates coefficient values.

1. In the regression, this variable is included as Ln(variable).
2. In the regression, this variable is included as Ln(1 + variable).
3. Panel estimations use 5-year periods.
4. The null hypothesis is that the instruments are not correlated with the residuals.
5. The null hypothesis is that the errors in the first difference regression exhibit no second order serial correlation.
Table 6: Growth, Foreign Direct Investment and Trade

Dependent Variable: Real Per Capita GDP Growth

1 2 3 4 5 6
Conditioning information set OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel OLS Panel

Constant 6.462 4.531 7.563 10.971 5.700 -0.876 6.366 5.419 6.935 6.620 6.336 2.524
(0.018) (0.478) (0.004) (0.255) (0.055) (0.918) (0.020) (0.330) (0.011) (0.376) (0.027) (0.706)

Initial income per capita1 -1.135 -1.120 -1.230 -3.168 -1.114 -2.698 -1.137 -0.216 -1.151 -1.393 -1.270 -5.637
(0.013) (0.482) (0.004) (0.242) (0.018) (0.257) (0.014) (0.863) (0.012) (0.504) (0.005) (0.005)

Average years of schooling2 2.812 5.182 2.878 9.036 2.847 9.223 2.806 2.519 2.659 4.603 2.991 16.644
(0.000) (0.155) (0.000) (0.187) (0.000) (0.100) (0.000) (0.413) (0.001) (0.373) (0.000) (0.001)

Inflation2 -3.057 -2.353 -3.609 -9.122

(0.061) (0.529) (0.065) (0.014)

Government size1 -0.281 -4.762 -0.552 -6.782

(0.598) (0.084) (0.354) (0.005)

Openness to trade1 -0.152 4.869 -0.442 -3.553

(0.734) (0.001) (0.369) (0.068)

Black market premium2 -0.605 -1.823 -0.139 0.555

(0.654) (0.176) (0.919) (0.625)

Foreign direct investment 16.430 150.596 7.310 234.048 17.881 201.450 20.850 75.550 16.894 99.801 22.961 236.671
(0.458) (0.041) (0.746) (0.106) (0.435) (0.037) (0.473) (0.109) (0.417) (0.504) (0.424) (0.009)

FDI * Trade 29.241 259.748 17.771 56.605 33.007 217.435 35.456 89.843 33.880 148.279 39.920 324.020
(0.491) (0.001) (0.670) (0.626) (0.445) (0.053) (0.479) (0.162) (0.370) (0.237) (0.361) (0.008)

Number of observations3 67 276 67 267 66 270 67 275 65 257 65 245

R2 (adjusted) 0.269 0.305 0.241 0.258 0.249 0.270
Sargan test (p-value)4 0.655 0.825 0.931 0.589 0.387 0.876
Serial correlation test (p-value)5 0.318 0.940 0.996 0.443 0.985 0.667

Notes: P-values are in parentheses below estimates coefficient values.

1. In the regression, this variable is included as Ln(variable).
2. In the regression, this variable is included as Ln(1 + variable).
3. Panel estimations use 5-year periods.
4. The null hypothesis is that the instruments are not correlated with the residuals.
5. The null hypothesis is that the errors in the first difference regression exhibit no second order serial correlation.