Does Inflation Targeting Matter for Attracting Foreign Direct Investment into Developing Countries?

This paper investigates the effect of Inflation Targeting (IT) on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Based on panel data of 53 developing countries over the period 1980-2007, this study is the first, to the best of the author’s knowledge, to evaluate directly the effect of IT on FDI. Using a variety of propensity scores-matching methods which allow controlling for selfselection in policy adoption, it finds that the treatment effect of IT on FDI is positive, statistically significant and robust to a set of alternative specifications. In terms of policy recommendations, this finding therefore suggests that if well implemented, IT adoption can be a legitimate part of the policy toolkit available to policymakers in developing countries in their competition to attract more FDI.