The determinants of foreign direct investment in sub-Saharan Africa: what role for governance?

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Gilles Cols

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: For the past quarter of a century, foreign direct investment (FDI) flows have grown exponentially across the world. Sub-Saharan Africa has, however, lagged behind and only lured on average a mere 2% of global FDI. The investment that the region attracts tends, moreover, to be concentrated in a number of commodity-rich countries. Natural resources and the size of national markets have generally been considered as the main drivers of FDI. The quality of local institutions has, by contrast, attracted less attention. This paper uses institutional data for 22 countries in order to demonstrate that the quality of governance plays a far from negligible and enduring role in the distribution of FDI in sub-Saharan Africa. It is shown that factors such as political stability, government effectiveness, lower corruption, voice and accountability, and the rule of law not only are more important determinants of FDI than the size of local markets, but also that their influence on the capacity of African countries to attract FDI is long-lasting.

Keywords: foreign direct investment (FDI); good governance; institutions; markets; natural resources; sub-Saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F3 G3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-08-29
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published in Regional Science Policy & Practice, 29, August, 2017, 9(2), pp. 63-81. ISSN: 1757-7802

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Related works:
Journal Article: The determinants of foreign direct investment in sub-Saharan Africa: What role for governance? (2017)
Working Paper: The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in sub-Saharan Africa: What Role for Governance? (2017)
Working Paper: The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in sub-Saharan Africa: What Role for Governance? (2017)
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