經濟成長向來是國家很關心的總體經濟指標，探討影響經濟成長的因素已經從過去對資本累積與勞動投入的研究，轉往討論因技術進步的內生成長因子。目前全球化的經濟型態，獲得技術進步的外溢效果最常見的管道就是引進外人直接投資，可是似乎不是每個接受國都能夠充分吸收外溢效果，表示接受國可能存在某種特質進而造成不同的效果。本文利用Borensztein et al. (1998)所設定的內生成長模型，探討外人直接投資對接受國經濟成長的影響，並且加入貪腐因子是否為影響接受國獲得正向外溢效果的重要因子，其後利用估計結果計算的貪腐門檻值，以分析各洲或地區，因貪腐程度不同，吸收運用外溢效果對經濟成長的貢獻情況。研究期間自1980年到2004年，樣本國包含已開發及開發中國家共49國。實證結果顯示： 1.外人直接投資對經濟成長的效果存在不確定的情形，必須依賴接受國的貪腐程度而定，貪腐印象指數愈高，接受國更能吸收運用外溢效果，反之亦然。 2.利用貪腐門檻值來觀察亞洲四小龍與各地區的經濟表現，發現在門檻值之上的國家較能吸收外溢效果，進而表現在經濟成長上，相對的由於無法有效處理貪腐問題，將使得外人直接投資無法充分發揮正面效溢。 Economic growth is always the major concern of a country. In the relevant literature, the sources of economic growth have been emphasized more on technology progress rather than factor accumulation. Under the wave of globalization, international spillover effect through foreign direct investment (FDI) has been viewed as an important source of technological progress. However, not all of the host countries can fully absorb this spillover effect, indicating that certain individual characteristics may be important to determine a country’s absorptive capacity of FDI. This paper uses endogenous growth model developed by Borensztein et al, (1998) as a theoretical model to empirically investigate how FDI affect economic growth in the host country, with consideration of the degree of corruption as an important factor of determining positive growth effect of FDI. The data used in this study contains 49 countries for the period of 1980 to 2004 and the main findings of this research are as follows: 1.The impact of FDI on economic growth depends on the degree of corruption in the host countries. 2.In the case of four Asian Tigers, we find Hong Kong and Singapore which have a degree of transparency higher than the threshold value calculated from the regression can absorb the positive spillovers effect of FDI, while Korea and Taiwan do not take advantage of this spillover effect through FDI due to their failure of dealing with the issue of corruption.
