Investigating the Impact of Structural Economic Vulnerability on Attracting Foreign Direct Investment in MENA Countries

Foreign direct investment is one of the most important sources of capital for countries. Knowledge and technology enter the host country through foreign direct investment and lead to increased competition, optimal resource allocation, increased labor skills, increased productivity, and ultimately increased employment and economic growth of the host country. On the other hand, structural economic vulnerability through the creation of economic and political instability, macroeconomic imbalances, exchange rate instability and inflation, leads to a lack of foreign direct investment in the host country. Therefore, if a country has stable macroeconomic policies, foreign investors will be attracted to that country and will be willing to invest in it. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of structural economic vulnerability on the attraction of foreign direct investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries during the period 2005-2018, using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The results show that in accordance with the theoretical expectations of the research, the index of structural economic vulnerability has a negative and significant effect on attracting foreign direct investment. Iran experiences high structural economic vulnerability in recent years due to its dependence on oil revenues and numerous international sanctions. Among other research results, the variables of logarithm of GDP, political stability index and property rights index have positive and significant effects on the inflow of foreign direct investment.