Despite plausible theoretical grounds for presuming a positive relationship between foreign direct investment inflows (FDI) and economic growth, existing empirical evidence on this nexus is inconclusi

The gap

Consensus across the literature

Supporting evidence — 6 representative gaps

• Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Output: The Conditional Roles of Financial Development and Institutional Quality (2026) · doi

  Our findings show that attracting FDI alone is insufficient for expanding output; countries must also develop robust financial infrastructure and effective governance to fully benefit from foreign capital.

  Keywords: show attracting alone insufficient expanding output countries must develop robust financial infrastructure effective governance fully
• Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in Morocco: Revisiting the Evidence with 2SLS (2026) · doi

  Background and Motivation: Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been widely examined as a potential driver of economic growth, yet empirical evidence for Morocco remains inconclusive due to methodological limitations and endogeneity concerns.

  Keywords: background motivation foreign direct investment widely examined potential driver economic growth empirical evidence morocco remains
• Economic Growth and FDI Inflows: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis (2009) · doi

  Despite plausible theoretical grounds for presuming a positive relationship between foreign direct investment inflows (FDI) and economic growth, existing empirical evidence on this nexus is inconclusive.

  Keywords: despite plausible theoretical grounds presuming positive relationship foreign direct investment inflows economic growth existing empirical
• Financial market development in host and source countries and their effects on bilateral foreign direct investment (2019) · doi

  Abstract We study an underexplored research question, namely whether financial market development in both host and source countries has an effect on bilateral stocks of foreign direct investment (FDI) and, particularly, whether the effect of financial market development in one member of the country pair conditions the effect of financial market development in the other member.

  Keywords: financial market development effect whether member abstract underexplored question namely host source countries bilateral stocks
• Labour market flexibility and FDI attraction: A macroeconomic analysis (2018) · doi

  Although there is extensive and relevant literature that explores the determinants of foreign direct investment, few studies exist that focus on the relationship between labour market flexibility and foreign direct investment; furthermore, most of these are firm-level studies and use old data.

  Keywords: foreign direct investment there extensive relevant literature explores determinants exist focus relationship labour market flexibility
• The share of foreign private equity funds in foreign direct investment in Poland between 2013 and 2022 (2025) · doi

  This study contributes to the limited literature on the interplay between foreign private equity funds and foreign direct investment in Poland, addressing an important research gap and offering insights into the dynamics of alternative investments in emerging markets.

  Keywords: foreign contributes limited literature interplay private equity funds direct investment poland addressing important offering insights