Do Natural Resources Attract Non-Resource FDI?

A new and extensive panel of outward non-resource and resource FDI is used to obtain panel error-correction and estimates with spatial lags of the determinants of non-resource and resource FDI. Our main findings are as follows. First, for those countries which were not a resource producer before, a resource discovery causes non-resource FDI to fall by 16% in the short run and by 68% in the long run. Second, for those countries which wre already a resource producer, a doubling of resource rents induces a 12.4% fall in non-resource FDI. Third, on average, teh contractin in non-reosurce FDI outweighs the boom in resource FDI. Aggregate FDI falls by 4% if the resource bonanza is doubled. Finally, these negative effects on non-resource FDI are amplified through the positive spatial lags in non-resource FDI. We also find that resource FDI is vertical wheras non-resource FDI is of the export-fragmentation variety. Our main findings are robust to different measures of resource reserves and the oil price and to allowing for sample selection bias..