A Panel Data Analysis of the Impact of Chinese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Remittances and Foreign Aid on Human Capital Growth and Brain Drain in Africa

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to analyze the impact the Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI), remittances, and foreign aid have had to human capital growth (HCG) and brain drain. The study data were collected from five African countries (Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, and Morocco) from 2009 to 2018. Secondary sources were used in data collection, then autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) modeling was used in the analysis. Before modelling was done, co-integration tests and panel unit were applied. The results revealed that Chinese FDI, remittances, and foreign aid had a significant and positive impact on HCG in the long but not the short-run. Besides, remittances, Chinese FDI, and foreign aid demonstrated significant negative impacts on brain drain in the long term, not in the short term. This study makes important practical and theoretical contributions about the roles of Chinese FDI, remittances, and foreign aid in the reduction of brain drain and the growth of human capital.