Samir Saidi

The role of transport and logistics to attract foreign direct investment in the developing countries

this paper analyses the importance of transportation and logistics among the determinants of foreign direct investment. Several works treated these investments and their significance for hosting economies. But the role of transport and logistics to attract the type of investment to the developing countries is not well studied. This work is initially based on the developing Mediterranean countries for the period of 2000–2009. Using panel data framework, the fixed effect model estimated a positive and significant coefficient for transport infrastructure and logistics function, implying that foreign direct investors are sensitive to transport and logistics.

Assessing links between energy consumption, freight transport, and economic growth: evidence from dynamic simultaneous equation models

We investigate this study to examine the relationship between economic growth, freight transport, and energy consumption for 63 developing countries over the period of 1990–2016. In order to make the panel data analysis more homogeneous, we apply the income level of countries to divide the global panel into three sub-panels, namely, lower-middle income countries (LMIC), upper-middle income countries (UMIC), and high-income countries (HIC). Using the generalized method of moments (GMM), the results prove evidence of bidirectional causal relationship between economic growth and freight transport for all selected panels and between economic growth and energy consumption for the high- and upper-middle income panels. For the lower-middle income panel, the causality is unidirectional running from energy consumption to economic growth. Also, the results indicate that the relationship between freight transport and energy use is bidirectional for the high-income countries and unidirectional from freight transport to energy consumption for the upper-middle and lower-middle income countries. Empirical evidence demonstrates the importance of energy for economic activity and rejects the neo-classical assumption that energy is neutral for growth. An important policy recommendation is that there is need of advancements in vehicle technology which can reduce energy intensity from transport sector and improve the energy efficiency in transport activity which in turn allows a greater positive role of transport in global economic activity.

The impact of transport and foreign direct investment on energy consumption: recent evidence from high, middle and low income countries

This paper investigates the impact of various macroeconomic variables on energy use. Among these variables, we are interested in the specific impacts of transport and foreign direct investment in 68 countries over the period 2000-2014. In order to make the panel data analysis more homogeneous, we also investigate the interrelationships for a number of sub-panels which are constructed based on the income level of countries. In this way, we end up with three income panels; namely, high-income, middle-income and low-income panel. By applying the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) on a dynamic panel data model, the results indicate that the energy consumption is affected positively and significantly by the freight transport in all panels. However, the impact of foreign direct investment is positive and significant for the high-income and middle-income panels. For the low-income panel, the impact is positive and insignificant. Finally, the energy use is positively correlated with economic growth, population and capital stock with different levels of significance.