From FDI to economic complexity: a panel Granger causality analysis

Roberto Antonietti and Chiara Franco

Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 2021, vol. 56, issue C, 225-239

Abstract: In this paper, we assess whether attracting higher amounts of FDI induces a greater level of economic complexity in a country. Using a panel of 117 countries and 22 years, from 1995 to 2016, we test for the causal relationship between inward FDI and economic complexity using a panel VAR approach and Impulse Response Functions. We find that accumulating a higher stock of inward FDI per capita Granger-causes a greater economic complexity in a country, and not vice versa. This causal effect is very small, however, and occurs only in countries with above-average levels of GDP per capita, tertiary education, tertiarization or financial development. We also find that only greenfield FDIs Granger-cause economic complexity in developed countries. Finally, knowledge-intensive greenfield projects are the only type of FDI that Granger-cause complexity in a less developed country, but the estimated effect is near zero and disappears after two years.

Keywords: economic complexity; foreign direct investment; panel Granger causality; panel VAR (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 F21 F23 O19 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X20304082
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: From FDI to economic complexity: a panel Granger causality analysis (2020)
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:eee:streco:v:56:y:2021:i:c:p:225-239

DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2020.11.001

Access Statistics for this article

Structural Change and Economic Dynamics is currently edited by F. Duchin, H. Hagemann, M. Landesmann, R. Scazzieri, A. Steenge and B. Verspagen

More articles in Structural Change and Economic Dynamics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().