FDI Spillovers, Financial Markets, and Economic Development

Download or read book FDI Spillovers, Financial Markets, and Economic Development written by Laura Alfaro and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2003-09-01 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the role financial markets play in the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic development. We model an economy with a continuum of agents indexed by their level of ability. Agents can either work for the foreign company or undertake entrepreneurial activities, which are subject to a fixed cost. Better financial markets allow agents to take advantage of knowledge spillovers from FDI, magnifying the output effects of FDI. Empirically, we show that well-developed financial markets allow significant gains from FDI, while FDI alone plays an ambiguous role in contributing to development.