Impact of FDI Inflows on Poverty Reduction in the ASEAN and SAARC Economies

Fayyaz Ahmad, Muhammad Umar Draz, Lijuan Su, Ilhan Ozturk, Abdul Rauf and Shahid Ali
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Fayyaz Ahmad: School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Muhammad Umar Draz: Department of Management and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia
Lijuan Su: School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Abdul Rauf: School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
Shahid Ali: School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-24

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to reinvestigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on welfare or poverty reduction in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) economies. We used FDI net inflows per capita and the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index (HDI) as the principal variables ranging from 1990 to 2014. Our analyses confirm the positive and strongly significant relationship between FDI net inflows and poverty reduction in Asia. However, it indicates significant differences between South Asia and Southeast Asia. Generally, we find that FDI has a greater impact on welfare in SAARC countries than in ASEAN countries. Our results hold true for both HDI and real gross domestic product (GDP), and are shown to be robust using both panel and pool model specifications.

Keywords: ASEAN; Asia; FDI; poverty reduction; SAARC; welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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