Authors: Zannatul Rumman Zinia, Abdullah Al Ruhul
Abstract: This study examines the economic impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on Bangladesh's automobile sector, with particular emphasis on sectoral output, employment generation, and macroeconomic determinants of investment inflows. Using annual time-series data and sector-specific indicators, the analysis integrates descriptive statistics, correlation assessment, multiple regression modeling, and iterative epoch-based robustness evaluation to investigate both the contribution and sustainability of FDI-led industrial growth. The empirical results indicate that manufacturing-oriented FDI exerts a positive and statistically significant influence on automobile sector gross value added (GVA), supporting the hypothesis that foreign capital contributes to capital deepening, technology diffusion, and production expansion. Real GDP, serving as a proxy for market size, emerges as a strong determinant of FDI inflows, while human capital development and trade openness demonstrate complementary roles in enhancing investment attractiveness. However, the employment elasticity of FDI remains moderate, suggesting that capital-intensive investment patterns dominate labor absorption effects. Productivity growth, measured as output per worker, exhibits gradual improvement but reflects structural constraints related to limited local value-chain integration. The findings suggest that while FDI plays a constructive role in supporting sectoral expansion, its long-term developmental impact depends on institutional quality, skill upgrading, and domestic supplier ecosystem strengthening. Policy recommendations emphasize targeted human capital development, enhanced local content integration, regulatory efficiency, and export-oriented industrial clustering to maximize the transformative potential of manufacturing FDI within Bangladesh's automobile industry.
