The relationship between infrastructural development and foreign direct investment inflows and economic growth in developing countries

Abstract

The last decade has seen a tremendous shift in global FDI inflows from developed to developing economies which has greatly benefited these countries to gain access to much needed capital to supplement their typical low domestic savings. The major focus of existing research conducted has been on developed countries and limited empirical work has acknowledged the role of infrastructure development in attracting FDI. Major aim of this is to assess the relationship between ICT, power and transport infrastructure and FDI inflows. Furthermore, the relationship between FDI and economic growth is also explored. Panel data analysis using the random effects model was utilised to analyse the abovementioned relationship on a panel of 27 developing economies between 2000- 2013. The developing countries were categorised into different categories based on income levels and mixed results were found across these levels. Unidirectional testing was performed in assessing these relationships. The direction was from infrastructure development to FDI and the latter to economic growth. When combining the developing countries together, the results show a significant and positive relationship between ICT, power and transport infrastructure and FDI inflows. FDI was also found to have a positive and significant relationship with economic growth.