FDI, Regionalism, Government Policy and Endogenous Growth : A Comparative Study of the ASEAN-5 Economies, with Development Policy Implications for the Least Developed Countries

Published in 1999, this text investigates whether FDI caused spill over effects which have led to the economic growth of the ASEAN-5 economies, and if that it so, whether the ASEAN Preferential Trade Agreement (APTA) had a significant effect in attracting FDI to the region. It takes into account the different levels of economic development of the countries under analysis. The results from the structural (static) model suggest that FDI has stimulated economic growth through the human factors followed by technology transfer, international trade, and learning by doing, and that the formation of APTA had a lagged influence on FDI inflows into the advantage of the more developed member countries and the disadvantage of the less developed countries. Those from the multiplier (dynamic) effects analysis demonstrate that whereas the impact is immediate in the more developed, politically stable and foreign investment friendly economies, there is a time lag in those economies which are less developed and more hostile to FDI. The analysis presents an empirical comparison of how the level of economic development affects the interaction of FDI, regionalism and economic growth.