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Country Scan

FDI Snapshot

03

The FDI Snapshot provides a high-level analysis of a country's foreign direct investment trends over time. It is an aggregator of FDI data across public and proprietary sources.  It presents benchmarking capabilities as users are prompted to select a target country and then up to five additional countries for comparative analysis. The tool leverages bilateral and country-level 

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I built this tool along with a former colleague while we both worked with the Investment Climate unit at the World Bank. The tool served two teams: (1) the Applied Research team used the tool for FDI research insights and easy access to cleaned FDI data for analytics, as well as source comparisons to understand data limitations from various international providers; (2) the Investment Policy and Promotion colleagues used the tool for operational projects, including as a research starting point for Investment Reform maps, and as a one-stop shop to generate charts on FDI trends for reports and mission presentations.

 

Eventually, the tool was made available broadly to all Bank economists, as macroeconomists and country economists also found the tool useful for understanding the role of FDI in macro contexts. 

Coverage

  • 197 countries
  • 22 economic sectors
  • 1970-latest year​

Methodologies

  • Herfindahl-Hirshcman Index​
  • Growth decompositions
  • FDI Composition
  • FDI Performance

Data Sources

  • UNCTAD 
  • IMF Balance of Payments
  • World Development Indicators​
  • Financial Times

The User Experience

The FDI Snapshot was organized around the following guiding questions: 
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  1. How much FDI does my country receive? 

  2. What type of FDI does my country receive?

  3. How does my country's FDI experience compare to that of other countries? ​

 

Users download the Excel tool on their desktop. ​They are prompted to make initial selections in yellow cells:

  • Years for analysis 

  • Target country

  • Countries for benchmarking analysis

  • Unit (% of GDP, per capita, USD$, # of investments)

  • Type (stock vs. flow)

  • Direction (inward vs. outward FDI) 

 

The tool automatically generates charts and data tables based on these inputs. The data table provides users with a shortcut for quickly accessing cleaned investment data​.

 Sample Outputs

​To build the FDI Snapshot, I took the following steps w/a peer: 

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  1. Downloaded, cleaned, and merged the source data in Stata. 

  2. Calculated relevant indicators and units of measurement

  3. Organized the harmonized dataset in a balanced cross-country panel database. 

  4. Exported the database into Excel. 

  5. Designed user interface in Excel, including graphs, tables, and buttons where users can input preferences and formulas work to automatically adjust results.  

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Importantly, throughout the process, I vetted the tool with a focus group of economists. This ensured the tool ultimately would meet their needs. 

How I Built It

DISCLAIMER:

The tool developed on this page was delivered to the World Bank Group. The tool itself is a property of the World Bank Group. The data utilized for the tool was publicly available data. The methodologies were developed by World Bank Group economists. 

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