Foreign direct investment and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa: does environmental degradation matter?

Abstract

This paper investigates the threshold effect of environmental degradation on the FDI-poverty nexus in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 1986–2018. The study used panel threshold regression for the empirical analysis. The evidence from threshold regression using different measures of poverty and environmental degradation shows that the poverty reduction effect of FDI is not eroded by environmental degradation. The study found overwhelming evidence that at the higher level of environmental degradation, FDI contributes significantly to poverty reduction except when Household final consumption is used to proxy poverty and FDI produces an insignificant effect on poverty reduction at the higher level of methane emissions and nitrous oxide emission. Based on this finding, any attempts to reduce environmental degradation by reducing the inflow of FDI will worsen poverty rates in the region.