Foreign direct investment and growth under economic integration

Abstract

This paper studies foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth in a two-country endogenous growth model. Starting with a core-periphery steady state in the world, the model shows that economic integration gives rise to FDI, leads to an expansion of R&D activity in the industrial core, and increases the world growth rate. In that process, the peripheral country enjoys a rise in the level of living standards. The model suggests that the often-observed positive correlation between inward FDI and economic growth does not necessarily imply any causal relationship—both of them respond endogenously to economic integration.