The Role of Foreign Direct Investment in Africa's Economic Transformation

尽管经历了20年的经济增长，撒哈拉以南非洲经济体的制造业仍然存在相当大的赤字，其特点是企业生产力低下、技术水平低下和出口产品不成熟。经验证据表明，这是该区域减贫和创造就业进展缓慢的部分原因。此外，研究结果表明，设法扩大、多样化和提升其制成品的国家有更大的可持续长期增长前景。在过去20年投资环境改革期间，大多数非洲经济体的制造业部门的发展令人失望，这使得对工业政策采取更积极的办法重新成为重要的问题。1980年代以来的东亚经验表明，由于技术和知识的外部性，外国直接投资可以将能力从外国公司转移到国内公司。此外，外国直接投资可以增加市场竞争，为国内公司提供进入区域和全球价值链的机会。因此，它可以发挥关键作用，使经济转向高附加值活动、制造业，从而实现结构转型和多样化。特别是亚洲工资上涨、经济重新平衡、摆脱出口导向型增长以及全球价值链的出现，为非洲经济体提供了机会之窗。事实上，有证据表明，对撒哈拉以南非洲的外国直接投资使现有产业的活动规模多样化，扩大了制造业活动的范围，决策者已经发现了这些机会，发展中国家在具体的基础设施、投资促进机构和吸引外国直接投资的一揽子奖励措施方面投入了大量资金。这引发了有关成本效率的关键问题，特别是考虑到发展中国家公共资源的稀缺性。从广义上讲，我的研究旨在更好地理解跨国企业（MNE）和FDI对区域创新，生产力和区域发展的影响。这与Riccardo Crescenzi教授的研究兴趣是一致的。更确切地说，研究分析了外国直接投资在撒哈拉以南非洲经济体结构转型中可发挥的作用。研究人员和政策制定者指出，需要开展新的研究，以更好地了解特定背景下知识和技术外溢的动态和机制。因此，本研究在制度薄弱、吸收能力弱和自然资源丰富的特定背景下，分析了知识技术溢出的存在、渠道和机制。这些见解对于指导政策设计如何最大限度地提高东道国的外国直接投资效益至关重要，这是本研究的主要动机和目标

Despite two decades of economic growth, sub-Saharan African economies continue to exhibit a considerable manufacturing deficit and are characterised by low-productivity firms, low levels of technology and unsophisticated exports. There is empirical evidence indicating that this is, in part, responsible for the slow progress in terms of poverty reduction and employment generation observed in the region. Moreover, research findings suggest that countries which manage to enlarge, diversify and upgrade their manufactured products have greater prospects for sustainable long-term growth. The disappointing development of the manufacturing sectors of most African economies during the investment climate reform period in the past twenty years have brought more active approaches to industrial policy back to the fore. The East Asian experience since the 1980s has shown that foreign direct investment (FDI) can transfer capabilities from foreign to domestic firms as a result of technology and knowledge externalities. Moreover, FDI can increase market competition and provide domestic firms with access to regional and global value chains. Thereby, it can play a key role in shifting economies towards higher value-added activities, manufacturing and thus structural transformation and diversification. Especially rising wages and economic rebalancing away from export-led growth in Asia as well as the emergence of global value chains represent a window of opportunity for African economies. In fact, evidence suggests that FDI to sub-Saharan Africa has diversified the scale of activity across existing industries and widened the range of manufacturing activities.Policy-makers have identified these opportunities and developing countries spend large sums on specific infrastructure, investment promotion agencies and incentive packages to attract FDI. This raises critical questions about cost-efficiency, especially considering the scarcity of public resources in developing countries. Broadly, my research aims to contribute to a better understanding of the effects of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and FDI on regional innovation, productivity and regional development. It is thus in accordance with the research interests of Professor Riccardo Crescenzi. More precisely, the research analyses the role FDI can play in the structural transformation of sub-Saharan African economies. Researchers and policy-makers have pointed out a need for new research to better understand the dynamics and mechanisms of knowledge and technology spillovers in specific contexts. Therefore, this research analyses the existence, channels and mechanisms of knowledge and technology spillovers in the specific context of poor institutions, weak absorptive capacity and natural resource-abundance. These insights are crucial to inform policy-design on how to maximise benefits of FDI in host regions which is the main motivation and objective of this research