THE INTERACTION BETWEEN FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT AND DOMESTIC INVESTMENT: IS THERE CROWDING OUT EFFECT?

After the fall of communism, Central and Eastern European countries have experienced a transition process in which a remarkable increase is observed in foreign direct investment flows into the region. During this process, when transition countries tried to adopt a free-market economy instead of a closed centrally structured economy, funds obtained through FDI constituted an essential way of financing for these countries that were trying to restructure their economy. This study questions the existence of the crowding-out effect by using data from Eastern European Countries, including Romania, the Russian Federation, Moldova, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovak Republic, Ukraine. With this aim, PANIC Bai and Ng (2004), the bias-corrected PANIC Westerlund and Larsson (2009) unit root tests, and panel data analysis are implemented. Results obtained were consistent with theoretical expectations and showed that FDI had a crowding-out effect in the short run but, in the long run, a crowding-in impact on domestic investment.