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Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 14(1), 2012
236
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN EMERGING AND DEVELOPED
ECONOMIES
Tatiana Dănescu 1
Paula Nistor2
ABSTRACT: In the context of globalization, the issue of foreign direct investments and their
influence on the development of the emerging economies, continues to be a topic of interest for many
economic theories. The need, the importance and the effects of foreign direct investments have
attracted the attention of all the states and produced an intense competition to attract the foreign
capital. FDI inflows have a very important role in the establishment of new world economic powers.
In the world economy, the foreign direct investment are oriented in major proportion to developed
countries, but the interest in this type of investment is particularly developed also in the emerging
countries who need not only foreign capital inflows, but also the modern managerial experience and
access to markets.The aim of this paper is to study and analyze the evolution of foreign direct
investment in emerging and developed economies in the last twenty years.
Key words: foreign direct investment, emerging economies, developed economies, financial crisis
JEL codes: F23, O4, O57, P45, M42
Introduction
An important component of the regional integration process and globalization of world
economy are the foreign direct investment, which in the last three decades of XXI century,
exercised a strong impact on economic growth, foreign trade and production structures in all over
the world .
According to the International Monetary Fund, foreign direct investment “is a category of
international investment that reflects the purpose of an entity resident in a country (direct investor)
to obtain a long term interest in an enterprise resident in another country (direct investment). Long
term interest involves the existence of a long term relationship between the direct investor and the
company. It is considered that the participation is long-term if the investor holds more than 10% of
the capital of the investee company or voting rights. The distinction between direct investor that
follows a long term relationship in the entity, with significant participation in the capital (minimum
10%) and the portfolio investor which is a speculator who not intended to control the holding
company in which it invests.” (IMF 2011)
Foreign direct investment are defined, according to UNCTAD (United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development), as those investments involving a long term business relationship,
reflecting a lasting interest of an economic entity ( the direct investor) and his control over an
enterprise resident in an economy other than the one of the direct investor (business related). By
"lasting interest" we understand the simultaneously of two conditions: to establish a long term
relationship, and a significant degree of influence on the management of the enterprise. (UNCTAD,
2010)
1 “Petru Maior” University, Târgu Mureş, Romania, e-mail: tatiana_danescu@yahoo.com
2 “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Doctoral School of Economics, Iasi, e-mail: paaulan@yahoo.com
Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 14(1), 2012
237
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) considers foreign
direct investments those investments made in order to establish a sustainable economic relation or a
significant influence over the management of the entity.
In today's world economy, foreign direct investments are seen as an important input of
foreign capital. This causes a real struggle in the global economy to obtain the foreign capital
The purpose of this paper is to study and analyze the evolution of FDI in emerging and
developed economies. In order to achieve this goal the study use data consisting of annual
observation of FDI inflows over the period 1990- 2010 for developed and emerging economies.
Literature review
In the last years, foreign direct investments have become more and more important for the
global economic activity. A large number of hypotheses regarding the relationship between FDI and
economic growth were developed in the literature.
De Mello found that FDI has positive effects on economic growth in both developed and
developing countries, but concludes that a long-term growth in host countries is caused by the
external effects of the technology and knowledge of the countries investing in host countries. (De
Mello, 1999)
Balasubramanyam found support for their hypothesis that the effect of the increasing of the
foreign direct investment is positive for countries that promote exports and potential negative for
the one that imports. (Balasubramanyam et al, 1996)
Foreign direct investments are generally considered to have a major contribution in the
economic development of the emerging markets. On the other hand, foreign direct investments are
also very important for multinational companies. So, both developed and emerging economies have
a common interest in encouraging FDI flows, although their goals are different (Resmini 2000,
Estrin and Meyer 2004): the positive efects of FDI are important for the host economies, while the
corporate growth and the revenues are a typical target for the multinational companies.
Although FDI in emerging economies have been the subject of many economic research, it
is unclear why investors prefer to take advantage of emerging countries opportunities despite the
fact that they are considered to be slow in the adopting new reforms and suffer from corruption.
(Tiju, 2007).
Research Methodology
The aim of this paper is to study and analyze the destination of foreign direct investment
inflows. In order to achieve this goal the study use data consisting of annual observations over the
period 1990-2010 for emerging and developed economies. Being focused on empirical,
contextualized analysis, this study highlights the development of FDI inflows in emerging
economies. Future research will study the effects of FDI inflows in emerging and developed
economies.
Foreign direct investment in emerging and developed economies
From the research of the specialized sources, results that FDI represented an important
source of capital for the emerging economies since 1990. Between 1987 - 1997 the global FDI
inflows experienced a duplication every 5 years. Meanwhile, after 1999, the global sales of the
multinational corporations have always been more than two times higher than the world exports,
making foreign direct investments, more important than trade in terms of the supply to foreign
markets.
The beginning of the XXI century was characterized by an acceleration of the globalization
process, the global flows of the foreign direct investment being an important manifestation form of
this process. Globalization through the FDI has become a part of everyday life for each of us, either
by products or services purchased either by work or communication mode.
Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 14(1), 2012
238
FDI inflows in emerging and developed economies have followed a growing trend from
1990 to 2000. After the record levels of 2000, the global flows dropped strongly in 2001, for the
first time in a decade.
As it can be observed in the table presented below, the FDI inflows had a decline in 2001, in
both emerging and developed economies in the context of the global economic slowdown. The
investment behavior of the companies was also strongly affected by the short-term changes of the
business cycles. This was the effect of the global economic slowdown, especially in the three
biggest economies of the world, which had entered all in recession, followed by a decrease in value
for cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Total value of these mergers and acquisitions completed
in 2001 was 594 billion dollars only half of those of 2000.
As a result the decline of FDI was concentrated mainly in the developed economies, where
FDI inflows were reduced by 47% compared with 15% in emerging economies.
Table no.1.
FDI inflows to developed economies and emerging economies between 1990-2009
Economy 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Developed
economies 172.526 114.035 111.141 143.434 150.575 222.484 236.035
Emerging
economies 19.010 22.500 22.680 23.965 39.300 47.303 58.404
Economy 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Developed
economies 285.390 508.742 852.131 1.138.032 601.041 440.731 369.173
Emerging
economies 77.240 77.988 116.519 104.590 88.734 65.032 58.154
Economy 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Developed
economies 418.829 619.170 977.887 1.306.818 965.112 602.834 601.905
Emerging
economies 98.246 90.287 112.406 156.197 141.201 95.739 158.796
(source, UNCTAD, million dollars)
From the peaking level in 2000, the volume of foreign direct investment inflows in the
world has passed in 2001 - 2004 to reductions. In 2007 the FDI inflows exceed the level from 2000.
The global economic crisis from 2008 temporarily stopped this trend. Overcoming the financial
crisis would bring a change in the world economic order, but this will not influence only positively
the role of the FDI in the world economic cycle.
The most developed economies from the emerging economies group are: Brazil, Russia,
India and China, known as the BRIC economies. In terms of FDI inflows, they exploded after 1990,
until 2009 when with the world-wide financial crisis, their decline began.
China leads in terms of FDI inflows in the entire analyzed period. It is followed by Brazil
and Mexico. If we consider the year 2009 the first four emerging economies by foreign direct
investment inflows were China, Russia, India and Brazil. According to the cumulative FDI inflows
Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 14(1), 2012
239
over the period 1990 - 2009, China ranked first again, with a total of FDI inflows of about 1350
billion dollars, followed by Brazil with approximately 349 billion dollars, Russia with 260 billion
dollars and India with 169 billion dollars.
In certain periods, between 1990- 2010, there have been times in which countries such as
Mexico, Argentina or Poland had overcome some of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and
China).
FDI inflows have not been uniform in emerging economies. They were affected by the
economic and political situations of each state. An important role in attracting foreign investors is
played by the law.
Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Ukraine and Venezuela are the
economies that compared with the rest of the emerging economies have attracted a low volume of
FDI. A common feature of these states is the high level of corruption. We can affirm that corruption
and the weak law frightens the investors.
All emerging economies have registered a decrease of FDI inflows in 2009 because of the
global economic crisis. The only exception was Philippines where FDI inflows have increased in
2009 to $ 1.95 billion from 1.54 billion U.S. dollars in 2008.
Figure no. 1. - The evolution of FDI inflows in developed and emerging economies in the
period 1990-2010, million dollars (source UNCTAD)
Between 1990 – 2010, the volume of FDI inflows was 10,838,025 million dollars in the
developed economies and only about 1,675,291 million dollars in emerging economies. The
developed economies have attracted almost seven times more foreign investment.
As it can be seen in the chart presented above, foreign direct investments have been clearly
more oriented to the emerging countries than to the developed countries. To note that in 2008,
because of the global financial crisis, the decline was really high for developed countries and almost
insignificant for the emerging ones.
An important issue is the development of these economies in 2008 - 2010, during the global
financial crisis. The years 2008, 2009, meant a decrease of foreign direct investment inflows in both
developed and emerging economies.
Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 14(1), 2012
240
The year 2010 brought new decreases of the FDI inflows in developed economies, being
still affected by the global financial crisis. Emerging economies have registered a growth in terms
of FDI inflows. FDI inflows have reached the maximum level for the period 1990 - 2010, reaching
158.796 million dollars. This shows once again that the global order is changing.
Global FDI inflows increased modestly by 5 percent to 1240 billion dollars in 2010. While
the global industry and global trade are already reached the levels from 2007, FDI inflows in 2010
remained by almost 15% below the same period and with about 37% below the record level
achieved in 2007.
According to UNCTAD report, FDI inflows will continue to recover, reaching 1400 - 1600
billion dollars or the pre-crisis level in 2011. They are expected to rise again to 1,700 billion dollars
in 2012 and to 1,900 billion in 2013, the record achieved in 2007. The multinational corporations’
liquidity, the restructuration of corporations and industry, the increasing stock value, established as
support measures during the crisis, creates new investment opportunities for the worldwide
companies.
However, in post-crisis the business environment doubt. The risk factors such as the
unpredictability of the global economic evolution, a potential crisis of sovereign debt and the
instability of financial and fiscal sectors in some developed and emerging economies, can slow
down the recovery of FDI.
Emerging economies, the power center for FDI
Emerging economies have become very important in 2010 as beneficiaries of FDI, and as
foreign investors. While the international production and, recently the international consumption,
have shifted by emerging economies, multinational corporations are investing in efficient market
projects in those countries. For the first time they have absorbed more than half of global FDI
inflows in 2010. Half of the top 20 host economies for FDI in 2010 were emerging economies.
The inflows to China, the largest recipient of FDI in the emerging world increased by 11% to
106 billion dollars. But with the further increases for salary and for the cost of production,
relocation of production based on laborious work slowed the FDI inflows and continues to be
redirected to industries and services based on advanced technology. In contrast, some economies,
such as Indonesia and Vietnam have earned a reputation for locations with manufacturing low-cost,
especially for the cheap labor.
The decline of FDI inflows in South Asia reflects a transfer of 31% of inflows to India and a
decrease of 14% in Pakistan. In India, the problems in attracting FDI have been caused by the
macroeconomic concerns. Meanwhile, the inflows to Bangladesh, a very important location in
South Asia for the low-cost production increased by 30% to 913 million dollars.
In 2010, FDI inflows to developed countries have marginally declined. FDI inflows variation
pattern was unequal. Europe took a sharp decline. FDI flows have registered decrease in Japan. A
grim perspective of the economy, austerity measures and a potential sovereign debt crisis, as the
legislative concerns were among the factors that have helped the recovery of FDI flows. FDI
inflows to the United States showed a strong change with an increase of more than 40%.
In developed economies, the restructuring of the banking system, led by the authorities has
resulted in a number of reductions for the investments in imported goods. At the same time has
generated new foreign direct investment while the goods were exchanged between the important
players. The global efforts to reform the financial system and the governments exit strategies will be
important for FDI inflows in the financial industry in the coming years.
Conclusion
Changes in the approaches in the international level of investment flows have brought with
it the increase of foreign direct investment worldwide, the policies adopted by developed and
emerging countries is a key factor in their development.
Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 14(1), 2012
241
The global financial crisis of 2008, noted that developed economies have been more affected
than emerging economies. The FDI inflows decreased dramatically during 2008 - 2010 in
developed countries, and some of them continue to fall today.
Emerging economies have registered smaller decreases, many of them recorded growth in
2010. As can be seen in the chart presented above, in terms of FDI inflows the year 2010 was a
record year for emerging economies and developed economies continued to fall. This shows that
emerging economies have exceeded the financial crisis and has chances to overcome developed
economies.
Many economists believe that in the future, some emerging economies will be the new
world developed economies. Today, China increases three times faster than the United States of
America, estimating that by 2041, China will be the biggest economy in the world and India will be
the third.
Foreign direct investments have an important role in establishing the new economic world
order.
In our future research we intend to study the effects of foreign direct investment in emerging
and developed economies.
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