Volume 4 • Issue 2 • PP: 34–39 • 2024
Impact of FDI on Sustainable Growth in Belt and Road Economies
Open Access & Copyright
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by ASPG. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment and economic growth in Belt and Road countries during 1990–2020. Our findings suggest that a 10% increase in FDI relative to GDP is associated with only a 0.9 percentage-point increase in GDP growth. The results hold after including control variables. The results can be explained by the factors that encourage investors and companies to invest their money in foreign projects, including relatively lower deployment costs, access to resources, a favorable financial environment, and developed financial markets. These elements collectively shape the impact of FDI on economic growth in Belt and Road countries. Future research on the FDI–growth nexus in Belt and Road countries should concentrate on causal links and potential indirect pathways by which FDI can influence economic growth.
Keywords
References
[1] R. M. Solow, “Neoclassical growth theory,” Handbook of Macroeconomics, vol. 1, pp. 637–667, 1999.
[2] P. M. Romer, “The origins of endogenous growth,” Jour-nal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 3–22, 1994.
[3] S. C. Gherghina, L. N. Simionescu, and O. S. Hudea, “Exploring foreign direct investment–economic growth nexus—empirical evidence from central and eastern european countries,” Sustainability, vol. 11, no. 19, p. 5421, 2019.
[4] S. Hobbs, D. Paparas, and M. E. AboElsoud, “Does foreign direct investment and trade promote economic growth? evidence from albania,” Economies, vol. 9, no. 1, p. 1, 2021.
[5] M. Abdouli and S. Hammami, “The impact of FDI inflows and environmental quality on economic growth:An empirical study for the MENA countries,” Journal of the Knowledge Economy, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 254–278, 2017.
[6] Y. Wu and C. Chen, “The impact of China’s outward foreign direct investment on trade intensity with belt and road countries,” Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, vol. 57, no. 6, pp. 1773–1792, 2021.
[7] Y. Su and Z. Liu, “The impact of foreign direct invest-ment and human capital on economic growth: Evidence from chinese cities,” China Economic Review, vol. 37, pp. 97–109, 2016.
[8] UNCTAD, “Annual report of UNCTAD,” United Na-tions Conference on Trade and Development, Tech. Rep., 2019.
[9] R. Forte and R. Moura, “The effects of foreign direct investment on the host country’s economic growth: The-ory and empirical evidence,” The Singapore Economic Review, vol. 58, no. 3, p. 1350017, 2013.
[10] L. Alfaro, A. Chanda, S. Kalemli-Ozcan, and S. Sayek, “Does foreign direct investment promote growth? explor-ing the role of financial markets on linkages,” Journal of Development Economics, vol. 91, no. 2, pp. 242–256, 2017.
[11] P. B. Rana and X. Ji, China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Springer Singapore, 2020.
[12] World Bank, “Belt and road initiative report,” World Bank, Tech. Rep., 2020.
[13] World Economic Forum, “Belt and road initiative invest-ment trajectory,” World Economic Forum, Tech. Rep., 2023.
[14] F. Ahmed and A. Lambert, The Belt and Road Initiative: Geopolitical and Geoeconomic Aspects. Taylor & Francis, 2021.
[15] M. A. Kamal, A. Ullah, F. Qureshi, J. Zheng, and M. Ahamd, “China’s outward FDI and environmental sustainability in belt and road countries: Does the qual-ity of institutions matter?” Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, vol. 66, no. 5, pp. 1002–1036, 2023.
[16] M. Taqi, M. Abbas, M. S. e Ali, and M. R. Ashraf, “Foreign direct investment, trade performance, and sus-tainable development goals: An analysis of BRI selected countries,” International Research Journal of Manage-ment and Social Sciences, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 50–62, 2021.
[17] E. Borensztein, J. De Gregorio, and J. W. Lee, “How does foreign direct investment affect economic growth?” Journal of International Economics, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 115–135, 1998.
[18] K. H. Zhang, “Does foreign direct investment pro-mote economic growth? evidence from east asia and latin america,” Contemporary Economic Policy, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 175–185, 2009.
[19] G. Agrawal and M. A. Khan, “Impact of FDI on GDP: A comparative study of china and india,” International Journal of Business and Management, vol. 6, no. 10,
p. 71, 2011.
[20] B. K. Adhikary, “FDI, trade openness, capital forma-tion, and economic growth in bangladesh: A linkage analysis,” International Journal of Business and Man-agement, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 16, 2011.
[21] G. Ruxanda and A. Muraru, “FDI and economic growth: Evidence from simultaneous equation models,” Roma-nian Journal of Economic Forecasting, vol. 1, no. 2010, pp. 45–58, 2010.
[22] S. M. Zekarias, “The impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth in eastern africa: Evidence from panel data analysis,” Applied Economics and Fi-nance, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 145–160, 2016.
[23] A. Hayat, “Foreign direct investments, institutional qual-ity, and economic growth,” The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 561–579, 2019.
[24] H. Varamini and S. Kalash, “Foreign direct investment inflows, economic growth, and trade balances: The experience of the new members of the european union,” Journal of East-West Business, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 4–23, 2010.
[25] S. Gupta, S. S. Yadav, and P. K. Jain, “Absorptive ca-pacities, FDI and economic growth in a developing economy: A study in the indian context,” Journal of Advances in Management Research, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 741–759, 2022.
[26] R. D. Hecock and E. M. Jepsen, “The political economy of FDI in latin america 1986–2006: A sector-specific approach,” Studies in Comparative International Devel-opment, vol. 49, pp. 426–447, 2014.
[27] S. Shahriar, S. Kea, and L. Qian, “Determinants of China’s outward foreign direct investment in the belt & road economies: A gravity model approach,” Interna-tional Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 427–445, 2020.
[28] E. Mehic, S. Silajdzic, and V. Babic-Hodovic, “The impact of FDI on economic growth: Some evidence from southeast europe,” Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, vol. 49, no. sup1, pp. 5–20, 2013.
[29] S. L. Gui-Diby, “Impact of foreign direct investments on economic growth in africa: Evidence from three decades of panel data analyses,” Research in Economics, vol. 68, no. 3, pp. 248–256, 2014.
[30] H. Y. Liu, Y. K. Tang, X. L. Chen, and J. Poznanska, “The determinants of chinese outward FDI in countries along “one belt one road”,” Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, vol. 53, no. 6, pp. 1374–1387, 2017.
[31] A. Aibai, X. Huang, Y. Luo, and Y. Peng, “Foreign direct investment, institutional quality, and financialdevelopment along the belt and road: An empirical investigation,” Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, vol. 55, no. 14, pp. 3275–3294, 2019.
[32] J. Chen, Y. Liu, and W. Liu, “Investment facilitation and China’s outward foreign direct investment along the belt and road,” China Economic Review, vol. 61, p. 101458, 2020.
[33] Z. Li, Z. Huang, and H. Dong, “The influential factors on outward foreign direct investment: Evidence from the “the belt and road”,” Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, vol. 55, no. 14, pp. 3211–3226, 2019.
[34] P. Basu, C. Chakraborty, and D. Reagle, “Liberalization, FDI, and growth in developing countries: A panel coin-tegration approach,” Economic Inquiry, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 510–516, 2003.
[35] K. Cicak and P. Soric, “The interrelationship of FDI and GDP in european transition countries,” International Journal of Management Science and Business Adminis-tration, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 41–58, 2015.
[36] A. Y. Yalta, “Revisiting the FDI-led growth hypothesis: The case of china,” Economic Modelling, vol. 31, pp. 335–343, 2013.
Cite This Article
Choose your preferred format
Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions, and data presented in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of ASPG, the journal, or its editors. ASPG and the editors disclaim responsibility for any harm arising from the use of any ideas, methods, instructions, or products described in this article, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.