Undergraduate Honors Theses

Thesis Defended

Spring 2018

Document Type

Thesis

Type of Thesis

Departmental Honors

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Wolfgang Keller

Abstract

This study estimates the effect of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on development between 2003 and 2016 in Africa. To capture diverse development effects, it uses several outcome variables and focuses on GDP per capita, school enrollment, life expectancy, the share of the population using the internet, the number of bank branches, and the number of bank depositors. The effect on GDP per capita is positive and economically significant, representing about 10% of growth over the period. The effect on enrollment is negative and economically significant, and this finding is reinforced by an analysis on child labor data. The effect on life expectancy is negative, but small. The effect on internet penetration is positive and economically significant. The effects on bank branches and depositors are positive, but the evidence for this is weaker.

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