scholarly journals DO FOREIGN FINANCIAL INFLOWS IMPACT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH? EVIDENCE FROM SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kwabena Twerefou ◽  
Festus Ebo Turkson ◽  
Belinda Frimpong-Wiafe ◽  
Samuel Antwi Darkwah

The study examines the impact of financial inflows, proxied by Foreign Direct Investment, Official Development Assistance and remittances on Economics growth in Sub-Saharan Africa using the Generalized Method of Moments technique and panel data for 47 Sub Saharan African countries for the period 1995-2017, while controlling for domestic investment, human capital, government expenditure, trade openness, inflation, financial development, political rights and civil liberty. The results indicate that remittances and Foreign Direct Investment are growth-enhancing as they impact positively on economic growth consistent with Solow neoclassical model. However, Official Development Assistance reduces economic growth possibly as a result of weak institutional quality. While government expenditure, domestic investment and inflation positively impact on Economics growth, trade openness and Secondary School Enrolment had a negative impact on growth. We recommend countries in the sub-region to come up with policies that encourage Foreign Direct Investment and remittances inflow while ensuring that institutional structures are improved to ensure the efficiency of Official Development Assistance and the better allocation of such resources. Countries also need to focus more on internal sources of finance for government expenditure.

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-217
Author(s):  
Nurudeen Abu ◽  
Mohd Zaini Abd Karim

Despite the large body of research on foreign direct investment, domestic savings, domestic investment and economic growth, little has been done to investigate the relationships among them. This paper examines the relationships among foreign direct investment, domestic savings, domestic investment, and economic growth in 16 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 1981 to 2011, using various techniques. The results of VAR estimation and Granger causality tests demonstrate that there is a unidirectional causality from foreign investment to growth and domestic investment, savings to growth, and a bidirectional causality between growth and domestic investment as well as savings and domestic investment. The results of the variance decomposition analysis reveal that foreign investment exerts more influence on growth. Savings are more important in explaining domestic investment, growth is more important in explaining foreign investment, and domestic investment is more important in explaining savings. Based on the results of the impulse response analysis, there is a positive unidirectional causality from foreign investment to growth and domestic investment, savings to growth, and a positive bidirectional causality between savings and domestic investment, both in the short and long-run. Although there is feedback causality between domestic investment and growth, the impact from investment is negative in the short-run and positive in the long-run. Thus, policies that encourage foreign investment and savings are required to boost domestic investment and promote growth, and policies that raise domestic investment will lead to higher savings and growth in SSA.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amna Zardoub ◽  
Faouzi Sboui

PurposeGlobalization occupies a central research activity and remains an increasingly controversial phenomenon in economics. This phenomenon corresponds to a subject that can be criticized through its impact on national economies. On the other hand, the world economy is evolving in a liberalized environment in which foreign direct investment plays a fundamental role in the economic development of each country. The advent of financial flows – FDI, remittances and official development assistance – can be a key factor in the development of the economy. The subject of this article is to analyses the effect of financial flows on economic growth in developing countries. Empirically, different approaches have been employed. As part of this work, an attempt was made to use a panel data approach. The results indicate ambiguous effects and confirm the results of previous work.Design/methodology/approachThe authors seek to study the effect of foreign direct investment, remittances and official development assistance (ODA) and some control variables i.e. domestic credit, life expectancy, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), inflation and three institutional factors on economic growth in developing countries by adopting the panel data methodology. Then, the authors will discuss empirical tests to assess the econometric relevance of the model specification before presenting the analysis of the results and their interpretations that lead to economic policy implications. As part of this work, the authors have rolled panel data for developing countries at an annual frequency during the period from 1990 to 2016. In a first stage of empirical analysis, the authors will carry out a technical study of the heterogeneity test of the individual fixed effects of the countries. This kind of analysis makes it possible to identify the problems retained in the specific choice of econometric modeling to be undertaken in the specificities of the panel data.FindingsThe empirical results validate the hypotheses put forward and indicate the evidence of an ambiguous effect of financial flows on economic growth. The empirical findings from this analysis suggest the use of economic-type solutions to resolve some of the shortcomings encountered in terms of unexpected effects. Governments in these countries should improve the business environment by establishing a framework that further encourages domestic and foreign investment.Originality/valueIn this article, the authors adopt the panel data to study the links between financial flows and economic growth. The authors considered four groups of countries by income.


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