Graduate School of International Studies Ajou University
Publication Year
2011-08
Language
eng
Alternative Abstract
During the last few decades Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been considered as a key driver for economic growth especially for developing countries which are working to attract FDI through changes in laws, tax incentives, special tariffs, among others and Guatemala has not been an exception. With a long history of FDI attraction, many changes have taken place in the country to improve the investment environment attracting FDI from many countries to different sectors such as manufacturing, services and telecommunications but whether FDI really contributes to the economic growth of the country has been still a controversial issue. The aim of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between FDI and economic growth in Guatemala using data from 1980 to 2009 with the Modified WALD (MWALD) test suggested by Toda and Yamamoto (1995). The empirical findings show that FDI does not have an impact on Guatemala?s economic growth whereas the economic growth of the country has an impact on FDI.