Three essays in international economics: On intra-industry foreign direct investment, exchange rates and capital flows and economics of Africa (Nigeria, South Africa)

This is a three-essay dissertation. Chapter One develops a theoretical model to explain intra-industry direct foreign investment and study its properties. The model yields interestingly intuitive insights despite its simplicity and static nature.{09}It is shown that in order for intra-industry foreign direct investment to occur, a firm's net competitive advantage by producing in the two markets must be at least equal to its net competitive advantage when producing at home for exports. If not, the firm will always export. I found that the extent of intra-industry FDI “home-bias” the degree of product differentiation and other industry characteristics.; Chapter Two addresses the relationship between real exchange rates and capital flows in developing countries. I disaggregate capital flows into four types namely, foreign direct investment (FDI), portfolio investment, bank loans, and other capital flows and making use of modern econometric technique of panel cointegration approach. I found that unlike Africa capital flows are a significant determinant of the long run equilibrium real exchange rate in Asia-Pacific and Latin America-Caribbean regions. Among different types of capital flows, foreign direct investment appears to be the most significant determinant of real appreciation. The findings apparently suggest that different types of capital flows should not be treated as equivalent.; Chapter Three provides a quantitative assessment of the impact of per capita gross domestic products of South Africa and Nigeria on per capita real gross domestic product (GDP) of sub-Saharan Africa and on SADC and ECOWAS sub-regions respectively, using panel data estimation approach. I found that while the impact of South Africa gross domestic product per capita on that of sub-Saharan Africa was statistically significant, that of Nigeria was not. Surprisingly, the GDP per capita of South Africa seemed not to have any statistically significant impact on the GDP per capita of other SADC member countries. However, the impact of South Africa's exports to the SADC region was statistically significant on the GDP per capita of the economies in that region. In the ECOWAS region, the per capita GDP of Nigeria appears to have a significant impact on the per capita GDP of the ECOWAS region.