The impact of foreign direct investment on economic growth: A comparative analysis between Nigeria and Turkey

The impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth has become a topic a great concern among researchers. The importance of this trend has surged owing to globalization process. There is enormous lacuna of stock of capital and technology between developed and developing countries. Hence, many countries try to attract huge FDI inflow to enhance their economic growth and development as it appears suitable means to fill the gap. This study investigated empirically the impact of FDI on economic growth between Nigeria and Turkey over the period of 1970-2012. To analyze the relationship between FDI and economic growth, Johansen cointegration, Granger causality, VAR impulse response and variance decomposition tests were carried out. It is concluded that, there is no long run relationship between FDI and GDP in Nigeria, there is no evidence of causality between FDI and economic growth (GDP) in Nigeria. For Turkey, our model provides no evidence of causal relationship between FDI and GDP. Keywords: Economic Growth, FDI, Granger Causality, Impulse Response Functions, Variance Decomposition