Causality Testing between Trade Openness, Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth: Fresh Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa Countries

Abstract

Previous works are yet to reach a consensus about the direction of causality between Trade Openness (TO), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Economic Growth (EG), in particular, using a panel data analysis for Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. This study adopts first and second generation econometric methods to analyse the relationships between trade openness, FDI and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa countries over the period 1980-2016. The Westerlund cointegration, the Common Correlated Effect Mean Group (CCEMG), and the Bootstrapp Granger causality econometric techniques were adopted. Findings show there is a cross-sectional dependence among the 23 SSA countries examined. A long-run cointegration among trade openness, FDI and economic growth also exists. A positive and significant relationship exists between trade openness and economic growth. FDI indicates a positive and significant relationship with economic growth. The panel error correction term (ECT) result further confirmed the long-run relationship among the variables. A bidirectional causal relationship exists among trade openness, foreign direct investment net inflows and economic growth for Gambia, Senegal and South African countries.