Foreign direct investment and institutional quality: empirical evidence from South America

Victor Owusu-Nantwi

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, 2019, vol. 35, issue 2, 66-78

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of institutional quality on foreign direct investment (FDI) flows in South America. Design/methodology/approach - The study uses two-stage least squares (2SLS) and fixed effect ordinary least squares regression analyses to examine the relationship between institutional quality and FDI in South America. Findings - The study finds a significant positive relationship between institutional quality index and FDI. This implies that improvements in the institutional quality relate to increases in the flow of FDI to South America. Domestic capital, GDP per capita growth, and trade positively relate to FDI. However, the coefficient of trade is not significant. This implies that increases in these variables relate to increases in FDI flows to South America. Practical implications - The study recommends that quality of institutions matter to the flow of FDI and therefore, efficient institutional reforms should be a priority for policymakers as this creates a conducive investment environment to attract FDI in South America. Further, policies that are focused on promoting competition, open market, and effective non-corrupt public institution as well as open and transparent legal and regulatory regimes, and effective delivery of government services should be the priority of policymakers in South America (Mishra and Daly, 2007). Originality/value - The study uses a single measure of institutional quality based on a broad set of institutional indicators. This broad measure of institutional quality differs from the available studies that mainly focused on single aspects of institutional quality, that is, either corruption, governance, or political risk.

Keywords: South America; Foreign direct investment; Institutional quality; 2SLS technique; F21; C22; O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jeaspp:jeas-03-2018-0034

DOI: 10.1108/JEAS-03-2018-0034

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences is currently edited by Associate Professor Ghulam A Arain and Dr Rebecca Abraham

More articles in Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().