The Impact of the Internationalisation of Multinational Banks on Non-financial Foreign Direct Investment in West Africa: A Modified Gravity Equation Approach

Abstract

The paper is devoted to explore the impact of Moroccan banks on the increase of FDI in West African Countries. We estimate the determinants of foreign direct investment flows using the gravity equation, taking into account the importance of both the traditional gravity variables (size, distance) and the financial flows (loans granted by Moroccan banks in African countries). The purpose of this paper is to verify whether Multinational banks can constitute a gravitational force to attract the industrial firms towards host countries in South-South relations. The data used cover the period 2010-2015 and focuses on 5 African countries Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali and Senegal. The gravity model is estimated in individual fixed-effect panel data by the ordinary least squares method. The results highlight that the internationalization of Moroccan Banks increased the volume of non-financial FDI from the same home-market (Morocco) in Western African Countries.