Does corruption matter for FDI flows in the OECD? A gravity analysis

In this paper, the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment (FDI) flows is analyzed. The literature is thus far divided regarding the effects of corruption: One hypothesis argues that corruption greases the wheels of government and is therefore beneficial while the other hypothesis argues that it sands the wheels of government leading to suboptimal results in an economy. For the empirical analysis, a dataset consisting of bilateral FDI data from the OECD and the control of corruption measure from the World Governance Indicators of the World Bank is compiled. To further analyze the effects of corruption the Panama Papers revelation is used as a corruption increasing event and the implementation into law of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention is used as a corruption decreasing event. Finally, the difference between corruption levels in the target and the origin country, will be examined. Then, a gravity model with dyadic and time-fixed effects is employed to analyze the data. Findings are ambiguous in that corruption is positively correlated with FDI inflows in the target country and negatively correlated with FDI inflows in the origin country. The Panama Papers variable shows strong evidence, that the release of the Panama Papers resulted in a drop in FDI flows. Therefore, it seems that corruption has complex country specific effects and that target and source countries have to adopt varying policies with regards to corruption. The general effect of corruption harms FDI flows, as shown by the Panama Papers revelation.