Is foreign direct investment good for health in low and middle income countries? An instrumental variable approach

Burns, Darren K., Jones, Andrew P., Goryakin, Yevgeniy and Suhrcke, Marc (2017) Is foreign direct investment good for health in low and middle income countries? An instrumental variable approach. Social Science and Medicine, 181. 74–82. ISSN 0277-9536

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Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between overall foreign direct investment (FDI) and population health in low and middle income countries (LMICs) using annual panel data from 85 LMICs between 1974 and 2012. When controlling for time trends, country fixed effects, correlation between repeated observations, relevant covariates, and endogeneity via a novel instrumental variable approach, we find FDI to have a beneficial effect to overall health, proxied by life expectancy, in LMICs. When investigating age-specific mortality rates, we find a stronger beneficial effect on adult mortality, yet no association with either infant or child mortality, suggesting the predominance of the FDI effect on overall health to be related to adult populations within LMICs. Notably, FDI effects on health remain undetected in all models which do not control for endogeneity. Exploring the effect of sector-specific FDI on health in LMICs, we provide preliminary evidence of a weak inverse association between secondary sector FDI and overall life expectancy, in line with previous findings.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	foreign direct investment,health,low and middle income countries,instrumental variables,sdg 3 - good health and well-being,sdg 10 - reduced inequalities ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Economics Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Business and Local Government Data Research Centre (former - to 2023) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Promotion Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research (former - to 2023)
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	29 Mar 2017 00:42
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 02:29
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63102
DOI:	10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.054

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