showing 9 related works from this author
Do Multinationals Deteriorate Developing Countries' Export Prices? The Impact of FDI on Net Barter Terms of Trade
2015
This paper explores the economic relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries and the export prices of the latter, measured by terms of trade. It is rst shown that economic theory suggests such a relationship for various reasons but is inconclusive about the direction of the eect. To address this open issue empirically, I analyze data on more than 50 developing countries throughout the period 1980 - 2008 using robust dynamic panel data methods. The results show that FDI had an economically relevant and statistically signicant positive impact on developing countries’ net barter terms of trade. A higher level of education in the developing country fosters this …
Globalization and Female Labor Force Participation in Developing Countries: An Empirical (Re-)Assessment
2017
We investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade, as two measures of globalization, on female labor force participation rate in a sample of 80 developing countries over the time period 1980–2005. Contrary to the mainstream view in the literature, which is mainly based on country-case studies or simple cross-country variation, we find that both, FDI and trade have a generally negative impact on female labor force participation. While the impact is of negligible economic size, it is stronger for younger cohorts, possibly reflecting a higher return to education in open economies. We further find a large degree of cross-regional heterogeneity and that the effect of globali…
(When) Should We Use Foreign Direct Investment Data to Measure the Activities of Multinational Corporations? Theory and Evidence
2016
This paper reviews the different concepts of measuring activities of multinational corporations. It aims at working out the economic relationships that theoretically exist between these measures under general economic assumptions and then empirically investigates to which extent such relationships exist in the data. As a main conclusion, foreign direct investment (FDI) stock data is indeed a good proxy for measuring most real economic activities of multinational firms. Discrepancies between FDI stock and other data can to a large extent be given a reasonable economic meaning, but observed asset-to-employment patterns in multinational production also call for more thorough future research.
Foreign Direct Investment, Terms of Trade, and Quality Upgrading: What Is So Special about South Asia?
2016
The existing literature has highlighted the positive effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on export upgrading and associated terms of trade in developing economies. However, the FDI effect has been found to be negative in South Asia. In this paper, we elaborate on the South Asia-specific effect by emphasizing the role of human capital in the positive link between FDI and terms of trade. We argue that education levels in South Asia have lagged behind those in East Asia and other developing regions. This has resulted in a world market integration strategy in South Asia that specializes in less skills-intensive products and generates associated FDI flows. We demonstrate these patterns fo…
Explaining Ethiopia’s Growth Acceleration—The Role of Infrastructure and Macroeconomic Policy
2017
Summary Ethiopia has experienced an impressive growth acceleration over the past decade. This was achieved on the back of an economic strategy emphasizing public infrastructure investment supported by heterodox macro-financial policies. This paper identifies the drivers of Ethiopia’s recent growth episode and examines the extent to which they were typical or unique. It combines country-specific information with the results of a cross-country panel regression model. We find that Ethiopia’s growth is explained well by factors correlating with growth in a broad range of countries in recent decades, including public infrastructure investment, restrained government consumption, and a conducive e…
The Role of Risk and Information for International Capital Flows: New Evidence from the SDDS
2012
In this paper, we investigate whether better information about the macroeconomic environment of an economy has a positive impact on its capital inflows, namely portfolio and foreign direct investment (FDI). The purpose of our study is to explicitly quantify information asymmetries by compliance with the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS). For FDI, we fi nd statistically signi cant and robust support for this hypothesis: SDDS subscription increased inflows by an economically relevant magnitude of about 60 percent. We also find evidence of aversion against political and macroeconomic risk as determinants of portfolio and FDI flows and use a non-parametric test for spatial correl…
Understanding Economic Growth in Ghana in Comparative Perspective
2019
Ghana has experienced a decade of solid and exceptionally high growth. Between 2005 and 2015, income nearly doubled. This paper analyzes the factors driving this impressive growth performance, using tools such as structural change decompositions and growth regressions. For the comparative perspective, the paper compares Ghana with its structural and aspirational peers. The paper finds that the contribution of structural change to growth has been limited and attributes this to labor that was freed up in agriculture not being absorbed by high-productivity sectors. Looking at factors that drove growth since 2000, financial development and infrastructure had the most important impacts. A benchm…
Ethiopia's Growth Acceleration and How to Sustain It—insights from a Cross-Country Regression Model
2015
Ethiopia has experienced a growth acceleration over the past decade on the back of an economic strategy emphasizing public infrastructure investment and supported by heterodox macro-financial policies. To analyze the country’s growth performance during 2000–13, the paper employs a neoclassical cross-country System Generalized Method of Moments regression model. The analysis finds that accelerated growth was driven by public infrastructure investment and restrained government consumption, and supported by a conducive external environment. Macroeconomic challenges arising from declining private credit, real currency overvaluation, and relatively high inflation held back some growth. The model…
The special issue on FDI and multinational corporations: An introduction
2019
Abstract This paper offers an introduction to the special issue on FDI and multinational corporations: http://www.economics-ejournal.org/special-areas/special-issues/fdi-and-multinational-corporations. It summarizes the contents of the five papers included, and relates them to the recent literature on the subject.