The Effect of Foreign Direct Investment and Infrastructure on Economic Growth in Laos

Abstract

The main of this study examines the long-run relationship between foreign direct investment and infrastructure on economic growth in Lao PDR using time series data from 1995-2020. The empirical evidence of cointegration among the variables in the long run by Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test estimates. The empirical results indicate that the FDI variable has a positive and significant impact on the level of Laos’ economic growth in the long run. Similarly, infrastructure variables such as telecommunication, electricity, and air transport play important roles in supporting economic growth in the long run and there are positive and statistically significant impacts at the level. As a result, to achieve the target of sustainable economic growth the government of Laos should attract and sustain more foreign direct investment and improve the infrastructure such as telecommunication, electricity, and air transport to boost economic growth shortly.