Foreign Direct Investment and Growth Symbiosis: A Semiparametric System of Simultaneous Equations Analysis

Abstract We characterize the types of interactions between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth, and analyze the effect of institutional quality on such interactions. To do this analysis, we develop a class of instrument-based semiparametric system of simultaneous equations estimators for panel data and prove that our estimators are consistent and asymptotically normal. Our new methodological tool suggests that across developed and developing economies, causal, heterogeneous symbiosis and commensalism are the most dominant types of interactions between FDI and economic growth. Higher institutional quality facilitates, impedes or has no effect on the interactions between FDI and economic growth.