Sectoral FDI, Absorptive Capacity and Economic Growth – Empirical Evidence from Egyptian Governorates

Using a novel panel dataset of Egyptian governorates for the period 1992–2007, we investigate the effects of aggregate and sectoral foreign direct investment (FDI) on Egypt’s economic growth. We distinguish between FDI in the manufacturing, agriculture and service sector. The similarity of governora...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:MAGKS - Joint Discussion Paper Series in Economics (Band 37-2015)
Main Authors: Hanafy, Shima’a, Marktanner, Marcus
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Philipps-Universität Marburg 2015
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Online Access:PDF Full Text
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Summary:Using a novel panel dataset of Egyptian governorates for the period 1992–2007, we investigate the effects of aggregate and sectoral foreign direct investment (FDI) on Egypt’s economic growth. We distinguish between FDI in the manufacturing, agriculture and service sector. The similarity of governorates in terms of institutional characteristics like culture, language, and legal framework and the consistency of the data collection process enables an effective estimation of the effect of FDI on Egypt’s economic growth. Employing General Methods of Moments (GMM) panel estimations, we find that neither aggregate nor sectoral FDI has an unconditional effect on economic growth. We also reject human capital as a channel of absorptive capacity, but reveal an interesting effect of FDI in the service sector on economic growth in interaction with domestic private investment (DPI). Service FDI promotes economic growth only if the host governorate has a minimum threshold of DPI to absorb foreign knowledge and technology.
Physical Description:39 Pages
ISSN:1867-3678
DOI:10.17192/es2024.0396