The impacts of institutional quality and business environment on Chinese foreign direct investment flow to African countries

This study examines the impacts of institutional quality and business environment on Chinese foreign direct investment (F.D.I.) flow to Africa. We derive aggregate indicators of institutional quality and business environment using economic and governance institutions, doing business, transport efficiency indicators conducting a principal component analysis. We employ Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (P.P.M.L.) procedure to estimate the gravity model of F.D.I. flow as it can solve zero-valued observations and heterogeneity problems. Our findings disclose that institutional quality and business environment indicators are significant motivators of Chinese F.D.I. flow to Africa. Our findings are robust and similar after we account for endogeneity concerns using an I.V. estimator. Based on our results, we conclude that improvement in the business environment and the institutional quality of African countries is key to spurring Chinese F.D.I. flow to Africa.