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Our study investigates the effects of foreign ownership on firm performance with respect to profitability, productivity, export intensity, and skills acquisition in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. This is particularly important given that in the last three decades, the stock of FDI has increased by over 20,000% in SSA countries. To achieve the objectives of this paper, we employed firm- and country-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys and the World Bank Development Indicators, respectively. Results of the least squares dummy variable (LSDV) and propensity score matching (PSM) estimations showed that foreign ownership was positively associated with higher levels of financial profitability, productivity, exports, and skilled labour acquisition. Policy implications were deduced from the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates empirically the role of institutions as an interactive factor in the FDI, trade and growth nexus in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We use the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique with data from 34 SSA countries covering the period 1996–2016. We find evidence of a decreasing effect of FDI on economic growth, which increases monotonically without institutions. On the trade openness – growth nexus, we find a positive effect of institutions on trade openness. We also find a positive institutional quality effect on growth; however, no such effect is found on FDI. Human capital development, financial development, and resource rent are equally found to exhibit positive effects on economic growth in SSA. In conclusion, our findings indicate the need for a targeted approach towards improving institutional quality to enhance economic growth and development in SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]