The impact of foreign direct investment on employment opportunities: Panel data analysis: Empirical evidence from Pakistan, India and China

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the continent of Asia received a large amount of FDI from developed regions. Additionally, in the Asia, India and China received a major chunk of foreign direct investment and FDI flows to Pakistan also increased significantly. Many studies show that the inflow of FDI plays a significant role in generating employment in host countries. The objective of this study is to undertake an empirical study on creation of employment opportunities by FDI during 1985-2008 in the Asian region. In this regard, we have taken the sample of three countries i.e. Pakistan, India and China from the same region. The Im-Pesaran-Shin (IPS) test of unit root is applied to find out the order of integration. The long run relationship is investigated through the Pedroni (1999) test of panel cointegration. At last, the Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) method is used for estimation of the impact of FDI inflows on employment levels in three countries. Implications for FDI policy are spelt out in the light of these empirical results. © The Pakistan Development Review.