From foreign direct investment to environmental regulations: Does a feedback effect ever exist?

ABSTRACT

This study revisits the feedback effect from foreign direct investments (FDI) on environmental regulations under the presence of the host country's political structure. Such a relationship may encounter the endogeneity problem due to the omitted variable bias and reverse causality. As such, the two-step system generalized method of moments is employed. Using data from 21 OECD countries from 1990 to 2019, we confirm that FDI flows influence environmental regulations, but such an effect is conditional on the host country's political constraints. Specifically, FDI increases (decreases) the stringency of environmental regulations if domestic political constraints are sufficiently high (low). Understanding the mechanisms of how FDI flows can affect environmental regulations allows countries to revise their policies to attract more FDI flows to support economic growth while simultaneously minimising their negative effects on the environment.