Chapter 10 Role of FDI in Developing the Base of Knowledge – An Analysis of the BRICS Nations

The presence of economic power of BRICS nations could be felt from the late of nineteenth and beginning of twentieth century and during this period inflow of FDI also began to go up and spread across all the sectors. FDI has not only looked to capture the huge market of these economies, but while doing so, it has helped these nations in their economics progress. Our main contribution in this paper consists of analyzing both short-run and long-run interactions between status of knowledge and FDI in the form of inflow of FDI and proportion of GDP used for R&D activities accounting for possible development of knowledge in BRICS nations. For this purpose, our work is based on a sample of these five nations during the period 2006–2017. By the help of panel data analysis and having performed all the necessary tests, we have introduced both dynamic OLS and fully modified OLS to get the efficient long-run impact of FDI on knowledge. Our empirical results support long-run and short-run causality running from FDI to knowledge in all BRICS nations. Our policy recommendation includes encouragement of more FDI in development of knowledge-related activities as well as increase in proportion of GDP spent on R&D in BRICS nations.