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Foreign Direct Investment, a blessing, or a burden for African states in terms of corruption?

Nebrelius, Kajsa LU (2023) STVK04 20231
Department of Political Science
Abstract
The development in Africa has for a long time been harmed because of its high
corruption levels. During the last decades, Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) have
increasingly flown into African states as an attempt to strengthen the societies.
Therefore, this thesis has investigated what kind of impact FDI between 1975 and
2000 has had on corruption levels in Africa. Through a hypothesis testing
approach using a mixed method, a positive correlation between FDI and
corruption is established, meaning more incoming FDI leads to lower corruption.
Due to the mixed conclusions of previous scholars, this thesis has taken a
narrower approach and investigated Botswana and Zambia, according to a most
similar design. The comparative... (More)
The development in Africa has for a long time been harmed because of its high
corruption levels. During the last decades, Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) have
increasingly flown into African states as an attempt to strengthen the societies.
Therefore, this thesis has investigated what kind of impact FDI between 1975 and
2000 has had on corruption levels in Africa. Through a hypothesis testing
approach using a mixed method, a positive correlation between FDI and
corruption is established, meaning more incoming FDI leads to lower corruption.
Due to the mixed conclusions of previous scholars, this thesis has taken a
narrower approach and investigated Botswana and Zambia, according to a most
similar design. The comparative case study indicates that Botswana has better
than Zambia absorbed FDI into the society, which appears to be a central
component in its relationship to corruption. Furthermore, the study implies that
state fragility impacts the extent FDI influences corruption, which is demonstrated
through Botswana’s higher level of authority, capacity, and legitimacy compared
to Zambia’s. Another two factors analyzed are which countries and sectors
Botswana and Zambia have received FDI from and within, which has
disadvantaged Zambia due to the large amount of FDI stemming from
authoritarian China. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Nebrelius, Kajsa LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK04 20231
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Foreign direct investment, corruption, state fragility, Africa, Botswana, Zambia
language
English
id
9115418
date added to LUP
2023-08-18 16:26:56
date last changed
2023-08-18 16:26:56
@misc{9115418,
  abstract     = {{The development in Africa has for a long time been harmed because of its high 
corruption levels. During the last decades, Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) have 
increasingly flown into African states as an attempt to strengthen the societies. 
Therefore, this thesis has investigated what kind of impact FDI between 1975 and 
2000 has had on corruption levels in Africa. Through a hypothesis testing 
approach using a mixed method, a positive correlation between FDI and 
corruption is established, meaning more incoming FDI leads to lower corruption. 
Due to the mixed conclusions of previous scholars, this thesis has taken a 
narrower approach and investigated Botswana and Zambia, according to a most 
similar design. The comparative case study indicates that Botswana has better 
than Zambia absorbed FDI into the society, which appears to be a central 
component in its relationship to corruption. Furthermore, the study implies that 
state fragility impacts the extent FDI influences corruption, which is demonstrated 
through Botswana’s higher level of authority, capacity, and legitimacy compared 
to Zambia’s. Another two factors analyzed are which countries and sectors 
Botswana and Zambia have received FDI from and within, which has 
disadvantaged Zambia due to the large amount of FDI stemming from 
authoritarian China.}},
  author       = {{Nebrelius, Kajsa}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Foreign Direct Investment, a blessing, or a burden for African states in terms of corruption?}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}