The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment Spillover Effects on Total Factor Productivity in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This paper examines whether FDI generates productivity spillovers in Sri Lanka, using the annual data over the period from 1978 to 2015. The autoregressive distributed lag model has been estimated to investigate the effects of FDI, research and development, human capital, international trade, technological gap, rate of inflation, population growth and civil war on total factor productivity (TFP). The results reveal that FDI positively influences TFP. The results also confirm that research and development, human capital and international trade have positive effects. The findings suggest that Sri Lanka needs to increase investment in human capital and in research and development and needs to introduce policies to attract FDI inflows.