Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Human Capital Accumulation? The Role of Gradual Financial Liberalization

We argue that the effect of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic human capital (HC) accumulation depends on the degree of financial deregulation. Using 383 observations from provincial yearly panel data of the reform period in China, we find the following: FDI has a positive and significant interaction effect with financial deregulation on HC in both least squares dummy variable and system generalized method of moments estimations that address the endogeneity of all important explanatory variables including FDI, financial deregulation, and their interaction term. That is, a higher level of financial deregulation increases the marginal effect of inward FDI on domestic HC.