Foreign Direct Investment: A Study of the African Determinants (original) (raw)

The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in the African Union

Journal of Economics, Business and Management, 2015

This paper will examine the factors that influence foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into African countries. FDI flows are important for African nations as they promote economic development. Estimation results using the Least Squares Dummy Variable model also known as the fixed effects model indicate that i) a high economic risk has a negative and significant effect on FDI flows into Africa ii) both political risk and financial risk have a negative but insignificant impact on FDI inflows iii) there is a positive and significant relationship between the commodity price index performance and FDI inflows iv) the good performance of stock markets in developed countries has a positive and significant impact on FDI inflows v) an increase in the infrastructure of a country has a positive and significant effect on FDI inflows vi) an increase in openness to trade has a positive and significant effect on FDI inflows vii) the amount of FDI received in the previous year by African countries is significant in influencing the FDI flows that come into the African continent in the current year. Annual data from 1984 until 2010 using 35 African countries is used for this panel study. Index Terms-Africa, foreign direct investment, long term capital movements, panel data.

Profiling sectoral risks of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa for the first decade of the 21st century

Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences, 2017

Despite Africa’s strong foreign direct investment (FDI) performance since 2000, the majority of FDI inflows have been directed to a few selected countries. As investors face many risks when investing in developing countries, it is argued that risk perception plays a vital role in the FDI inflows into Africa. This article focuses on the relationship between risk and FDI. A structural equation model is used to analyse this relationship with a dataset of ten risk categories and FDI data from 42 African countries. The study focuses on four sectors, namely metals, automotive, communications and real estate. Overall, results indicate that government effectiveness and legal and regulatory risks produce the biggest concern for investors. The conclusion is that each sector’s risk pattern regarding FDI differs. The most important empirical results indicated that African countries should focus more on government effectiveness, stability and transparency to attract the levels of FDI required to...

Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Africa: A Panel Data Analysis

2012

This study provides panel data evidence on the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) for a sample of 45 African countries over the period 1980 to 2009. Using dynamic panel data estimation techniques, the study identifies a number of factors that affect FDI flows in Africa, including, agglomeration economies, natural resources, real GDP growth, and international investment greements. The study also shows that the Africa-wide environment has become more conducive to FDI since the year 2000.

AN EMPIRICAL DETERMINATION OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN WEST AFRICA COUNTRIES: A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

Most countries in Africa have undertaken significant steps to attract FDI by adopted FDI-specific regulatory frameworks to support their investment related objectives. Thus, this study investigates the determinants of FDI in sixteen countries in West African by empirically examining the influence of growth rate of GDP in all the sixteen countries; GDP per capita; government policy in attracting foreign investors; infrastructural development; openness of the economy to trade; inflation rate; natural resources, official exchange rate and labour availability. Panel data were used because of

Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment: A Panel Data Anaylsis for Sub-Saharan African Countries

The aim of this study is to investigate the determinants of FDI inflows in Sub-Saharan African countries. In this study, panel data analysis was performed by using annual data from 23 countries for the period of 1975-2017. The Pesaran (2004) Cross-Section Dependence Test was performed to test correlation and IPS Unit Root Test was applied to reveal the stationary level between the units. Based on the PMG estimator results GDP growth, trade openness, domestic credit, natural resources and telecommunication infrastructure are all found to be the determinants of FDI inflows in Sub-Saharan countries in the long term. But, in the short term, only the GDP growth and trade openness determines the FDI inflows.

Comparative analysis of the key foreign direct investment determinants in African countries

2018

This study attempts to analyse the key FDI determinants in African countries using annual data for the period from 2003 to 2015. It firstly, gives the introduction and the background of FDI. Secondly, it provides both theoretical and empirical literature review on the key FDI determinants. Based on the literature review, the pre-estimation diagnostics (correlation analysis, descriptive statistics and mean and overall mean analysis), panel root tests, panel co-integration tests, main data analysis (fixed effects, random effects, pooled OLS, fully modified OLS and dynamic GMM) and robustness tests using the lagged variable approach were conducted to analyse the key FDI variables. Main data analysis indicated that the lag of FDI had a significant positive impact on FDI. The empirical results revealed that human capital development, infrastructure, growth rate, trade openness, natural resources, financial development, unemployment, exchange rate, government final consumption expenditure and population are the key FDI determinants in African countries. The robustness tests using the lagged variable approach were estimated to analyse if there is a causal relationship FDI and other variables such GDP, random effects revealed that there is uni-directional causality from GDP growth to FDI. Additionally, FDI was found to have been negatively but nonsignificantly affected by economic growth under the pooled OLS.

Drivers of foreign direct investment: new evidence from West African regions

Journal of Business and Socio-economic Development

PurposeThis paper aims to empirically investigate the factors attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into emerging economies.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses secondary data from the World Bank and the Global State of Democracy Indices of 16 West African countries (WACs) over the period from 1989 to 2018. Fixed- and random-effects econometric regression models are used to assess the nexus between 12 macroeconomic indicators (including political risk and cultural factors) and FDI inflows into WACs.FindingsThe critical drivers of FDI inflows into WACs are the richness of natural resources, market size or gross domestic product (GDP), imports and exports of goods and services, trade openness and the currency's strength as measured by the exchange rate. The result also reveals that French-speaking countries attract more FDI than other English-speaking countries. The previously cited determinants of FDI, such as infrastructural development, inflation, tax and pol...