College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park Kingsway Campus, PO Box 524, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Jul;29(34):51589-51608. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-18831-w. Epub 2022 Mar 5.
This study examines the spatial impact of FDI on ecological footprint of 31 African countries. In achieving this, the study uses the Driscoll-Kraay (1998) random effect model, fixed-effect instrumental variable regression, and the spatial Durbin model. There are three main important findings from this empirical study. First, FDI has a nonlinear impact on ecological footprint in Africa. At the initial stage, FDI reduces ecological footprint up to a threshold of $404.75-$669.96 million, before the impact increases ecological degradation. This result is robust to the instrumental regression model. Second, the results further reveal a significant spatial spillover of FDI on ecological footprint in Africa. Third, the empirical results provide evidence of both direct and spillover effects of environmental degradation determinant in Africa. This denotes that environmental quality of a particular country influences the environmental quality of other neighbouring countries. While it is important to attract significant amount of foreign investment to Africa, this study recommends that African governments need to improve their environmental regulations and laws to achieve transfer of energy-saving technology from foreign investors.
本研究考察了外国直接投资对 31 个非洲国家生态足迹的空间影响。为此，本研究使用了 Driscoll-Kraay（1998）随机效应模型、固定效应工具变量回归和空间杜宾模型。这项实证研究有三个主要发现。首先，外国直接投资对非洲的生态足迹有非线性影响。在初始阶段，外国直接投资减少生态足迹，直到达到 4.0475 亿至 6.6996 亿美元的阈值，然后才会增加生态退化的影响。这一结果在工具回归模型中是稳健的。其次，研究结果进一步揭示了外国直接投资对非洲生态足迹的显著空间溢出效应。第三，实证结果提供了非洲环境退化决定因素的直接和溢出效应的证据。这意味着一个国家的环境质量会影响其他邻国的环境质量。虽然吸引大量外国投资对非洲很重要，但本研究建议非洲政府需要改善其环境法规，以实现从外国投资者转移节能技术。
