Foreign Direct Investment, Financial Development, and Economic Growth Nexus in Bangladesh

Foreign Direct Investment, Financial Development, and Economic Growth Nexus in Bangladesh

This article aims to explore the short- and long-run impact of foreign direct investment (FDI), financial development (FD), capital formation, and the labor forces on the economic growth of Bangladesh. We applied the Granger causality test and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) for this study. The World Bank data for the period of 1990–2018 are taken into account for the analysis. Our findings suggest, in the long run, capital formation has a positive impact, and in the short run, it has a negative impact on gross domestic product (GDP) implying a lack of higher efficiency is persisting in capital management. Similarly, labor forces have an insignificant impact in the short run and a negative impact in the long run on GDP, which confirms the presence of a huge number of unskilled laborers in the economy with inefficient allocation. The impact of FD is found tiny positive in the short run but large negative in the long run on GDP indicating vulnerability of banking sector. These also confirm fraudulence and inefficient use of the domestic credit supplied to the private sector. The impact of FDI is approximately null both in the short and long run, indicating Bangladesh fails to achieve the long-term benefits of FDI. Finally, this study suggests using FDI more in the capital intensive project of the public–private partnership venture than infrastructural development only and also improving the credit management policy of the banking sector.