External Openness and Economic Growth in Developing Countries

This paper investigates empirically the relationship between two channels of external openness: international trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), and the rate of economic growth implied by the leader–follower model. The predictions of the theory are tested for the group of 97 developing countries in the period of 1974–2006 using static and dynamic panel data estimation methods. The estimation results show that both international trade and FDI positively contribute to growth.