Kinesiska direktinvesteringar i Afrika

Abstract

This study examines how Chinese foreign direct investments (FDI) affect the social development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Social development is measured as human development index (HDI) and inequality-adjusted human development index (IHDI). The effects of FDI have been investigated in several studies during the years. Most studies agree that FDI is in general positive for the host country. FDI can cause direct effects such as capital flow to the receiving country, job creation and technology transfer as well as spill over effects in form of increased productivity, knowledge and innovation. Negative effects appears when the foreign company fail to connect to the host country and/or withdraw the profits from the host country. Different types of FDI tend to affect the host country differently. This study was conducted with a regression analysis with data from 31 SSA-countries during 2003 to 2015. We discovered that Chinese FDI in fact had a negative impact on human development. However, we couldn’t draw any conclusions whether Chinese FDI differs from the total FDI due to insignificant results. We believe the result is caused by the fact that total FDI includes a wider range of FDI types and recommend further research on the subject.