Why Doesn't Capital Flow from Rich to Poor Countries? An Empirical Investigation

Laura Alfaro, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan and Vadym Volosovych

No 11901, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We examine the empirical role of different explanations for the lack of flows of capital from rich to poor countries the "Lucas Paradox." The theoretical explanations include differences in fundamentals across countries and capital market imperfections. We show that during 1970-2000 low institutional quality is the leading explanation. For example, improving Peru's institutional quality to Australia's level, implies a quadrupling of foreign investment. Recent studies emphasize the role of institutions for achieving higher levels of income, but remain silent on the specific mechanisms. Our results indicate that foreign investment might be a channel through which institutions affect long-run development.

JEL-codes: F21 F41 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev
Note: IFM ITI
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (127)

Published as Laura Alfaro & Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan & Vadym Volosovych, 2008. "Why Doesn't Capital Flow from Rich to Poor Countries? An Empirical Investigation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(2), pages 347-368, 01.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w11901.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Why does not capital frlow from rich to poor countries? An Empirical investigation (2004)
Working Paper: Why doesn't capital flow from rich to poor countries? An empirical investigation (2004)
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:nbr:nberwo:11901

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w11901

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().