FDI Inflows and Economic Growth: A Novel Application of Dose-Response Functions

In this work we estimate different dose-response functions linking FDI inflows received by developing countries with their economic growth. Although the impact of FDI on the economic growth of host countries has been widely investigated in literature, findings have been ambiguous. Our study proposes a novel ‘dose-response’ approach which allows the response of recipients to different amounts of treatment in terms of FDI inflow to be observed. Our findings show that the estimated dose-response functions are statistically significant for treatment values greater than 20%, after the treatment has been rescaled to a percentage measure of the maximum dose observed, and increasing at a decreasing rate, therefore suggesting three relevant results: a) a country receiving a greater amount of FDI inflows will present a higher economic growth; b) there might be a minimum amount of FDI inflows required to reach some policy effectiveness; c) the initial amounts of FDI inflow are more effective than the subsequent ones. Results will help policymakers to better isolate the effect of FDI on economic growth and conduct informed FDI cost-benefit analysis.