Spillover effects of natural resources on the attractiveness of foreign direct investment in ECOWAS countries

The economies of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries are linked by geography and by a policy of capital mobility. Consequently, the attractiveness of foreign direct investments (FDI) in one country is likely to be influenced by factors that explain FDI in neighboring countries, such as the endowment of natural resources. However, previous empirical studies have overlooked the spatial interaction effects of natural resources on the attractiveness of FDI in ECOWAS countries. In addition, natural resources are factors of production that can justify the location of a Multinational Enterprise in one country at the detriment of another, due to differences in the availability of natural resources. Thus, the main objective of this research is to fill this research gap by analyzing the spatial interaction effects of natural resource exploitation on the attractiveness of FDI in ECOWAS countries. Therefore, the dynamic Durbin Spatial Model (SDM) estimation method with a distance matrix was used for the analysis, covering 12 ECOWAS countries over the period 2007–2020. In addition, the use of the distance-inverse matrix with the dynamic SDM was used to analyze the spatial effects of different types of natural resources in order to test the robustness of the results. In terms of the results obtained, the findings show that the further ahead a country is in exploiting its natural resources, the more it negatively influences the attractiveness of new FDI in its bosom to the benefit of its neighboring countries, which are relatively behind in exploiting their natural resources. Specifically, the mining and forestry exploitation generates positive spillover effects, while oil and natural gas exploitation has negative spillover effects on the attractiveness of FDI from neighboring countries. A synchronization policy and a policy of compensating for the negative externalities linked to the exploitation of natural resources between ECOWAS countries would therefore make it easier to attract FDI and stimulate economic and social development.