Effects of Economic Globalization, Foreign Capital Influx on Export in ECOWAS

Abstract The relationships between globalization, foreign direct investment (FDI), and exports (trade) have been the subject of in-depth studies leading to mixed and inconclusive results. This study investigates how globalization and FDI influence and affect export, as well as the responsiveness of exports to globalization shocks in the West African ECOWAS region over the period 1980–2014. To investigate these phenomena, the study uses Panel VAR, cointegration methods and long-run estimation methods to estimate the short-run, cointegration and long-run relationships, as well as the responsiveness of export shocks due to economic globalization and FDI. The Panel VAR and Granger causality test results showed that there is a positive and significant effect as well as a causal relationship between economic globalization, non-export GDP, and short-term exports. Further, the study also shows that there is no significant effect and no causal relationship between FDI and exports in the short-run, but, FDI has a positive and significant relationship with export in the long-run in the ECOWAS region. The cointegration and long-run analysis showed the existence of cointegration and a long-run relationship between exports and the regressors included in this study.