LES RELATIONS ENTRE LES INVESTISSEMENTS DIRECTS ÉTRANGERS MAROCAINS ET TUNISIENS : CONCURRENCE DES TERRITOIRES OU EFFETS DE DÉVERSEMENT D'ATTRACTIVITÉ ?

The key factors influencing foreign firms’ decisions to locate in developing economies are now rather well documented by empirical studies, and a growing number of countries have implemented similar reforms to promote political and macroeconomic stability and microeconomic incentives. But trade-offs or complementarities between investments received by close national economic spaces can occur and explain part of their performance or their under-performance in attracting FDI. In this paper we try to assess if there is an adverse (positive) relationship between FDI flows in Tunisia and in Morocco. We test this hypothesis within the framework of a model with VEC and we show that FDI in Tunisia improve the business climate in the region and increase FDI in Morocco in an indirect way. But, meanwhile, Morocco may undergo a significant diversion of FDI in favour of Tunisia in the long run.