The Role of Geography in Financial Integration: Foreign Direct Investment

AbstractPolitical scientists and economists have long been interested in the role of special interests in the policymaking process. In the past few years, a series of important new books have argued forcefully that the lobbying activities of economic actors have an important influence on the prospects for war and peace. All of these analyses claim that whether economic actors enhance or decrease the likelihood of conflict ultimately depends on the domestic political balance between economic actors who have a strong vested interest in pushing for peace versus those that do not. I advance two contrary arguments. At least among the advanced states, I posit there are no longer any economic actors who will be favorable toward war and who will lobby the government with this preference. All of the identified mechanisms that previously contributed to such lobbying in these states have been swept away with the end of colonialism and the rise of economic globalization. In particular, I show that the current structure of the global economy now makes it feasible for foreign direct investment to serve as an effective substitute for conquest in a way that was not possible in previous eras. My second argument concerns those economic actors in advanced states with a preference for peace. I posit that it has become unnecessary for them to directly lobby the government to avoid war on economic grounds because economic globalization—the accumulation of decisions by economic actors throughout the globe—now has sufficiently clear economic incentives for leaders.

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FINANCIAL INTEGRATION AND ENVIRONMENT IN AFRICA: THE ROLE OF OUTPUT GROWTH AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

International Journal of Big Data Mining for Global Warming ◽

10.1142/s2630534821500029 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 2150002

Author(s):

EKUNDAYO PETER MESAGAN ◽

KAYODE ABIODUN AKINYEMI ◽

ISMAILA AKANNI YUSUF

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Foreign Direct Investment ◽

Direct Investment ◽

Financial Integration ◽

Ordinary Least Squares ◽

Output Growth ◽

Particulate Emissions ◽

African Countries ◽

Output Increase ◽

Specific Emissions

As economies integrate financially and both investment and output increase, the environment may be affected depending on the nature of international financial resources attracted into the country. Hence, this study examines the effect of financial integration, output growth, and foreign direct investment (FDI) on the environment in selected African countries involving Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, and Angola between 1980 and 2017. The study uses carbon emissions and particulate emissions (PM) to proxy pollution and analyze the data through the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) technique. Empirical results show that financial integration worsens pollution in Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, and in Africa; output growth deteriorates pollution in South Africa, Algeria, Angola, and in Africa; while FDI fuels environmental degradation in Egypt and South Africa. We recommend that African countries should strive to establish specific targets for lowering emissions even though the Kyoto Protocol did not set specific emissions reduction targets for them.

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