Factors Affecting Investment in Developing Countries: A Panel Data Study

This paper investigates the gross investment behavior in a panel of 97 developing countries spanning a period between 1973 and 2002. Fixed Effect Model is employed to analyze data. Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) test is conducted to ensure that the data are free from multicollinearity. Also, Granger Causality test is conducted to see if reverse causality exists. 2-Step 1^st Difference Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) dynamic panel estimator has been employed to offset unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity of regressors. The results suggest that investment decisions still seem to be significantly affected by traditional determinants such as growth, domestic savings, trade openness etc. The variable aid appeared to potentially affect investment which calls for developing country's measures to ensure proper utilization of it. However, we failed to highlight the effect of real interest rate and uncertainty on investment attributing the former to macroeconomic volatility and latter to lack of data on corruption index.