The Effect of Total Factor Productivity on Attracting Foreign Direct Investments in Industrial Economic Blocs

Increasing the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) can motivate countries’ economic growth via channels of covering the savings-investment gap, and transferring advanced technologies, transferring technical knowledge, and transferring managerial skills, and new production methods. Therefore, identifying the determinants of attracting FDI and the appropriate proceeding for attracting FDI and eliminating its barriers in different countries, especially in developing countries, are very necessary. In this regard, the present study has investigated the effect of the total factor productivity on the attraction of FDI in the economic blocs including D8, BRICS, and G7 over the period of 1990-2018. For this purpose, the research model has been estimated separately for each of the selected economic blocs in three modes by using panel data and the generalized method of moments (GMM). The results of estimation showed that the effect of the total factor productivity on attracting FDI in all three selected economic blocs was positive and significant. However, the D8 estimated coefficient was the largest one. Also, the estimated results showed that the effects of the model’s control variables (population, real exchange rate, openness degree, and real interest rates) on attracting FDI in all three selected economic blocs were positive and significant.