FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT, HUMAN CAPITAL AND NONLINEARITIES IN ECONOMIC GROWTH

This paper examines the effect of FDI on the process of economic growth by allowing the impact to differ both across each country and also across each time period. We apply non-parametric techniques taking into account the previously documented nonlinear effects of initial income and human capital on economic growth. We use a wide range of countries, both developed and developing in order to be able to distinguish potential differential effects between the two groups. Our findings suggest that FDI inflows have a moderately nonlinear effect on growth and that the human capital nonlinear effect in the presence of FDI inflows is similar to the one found elsewhere in the relevant literature. Classification-JEL: O47cross country growth regressions, FDI, human capital, semi-parametric additive model