Foreign direct investment is an engine of economic growth. However, it may affect environmental quality (improve or deteriorate it), depending on the context. Under a multivariate framework, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between foreign direct investment and deforestation for Sub‐Sahara African countries with economic growth, trade openness and urbanization as additional determinants of deforestation. The analyses reveal that all variables are non‐stationary and cointegrated based on recent panel data techniques. On applying dynamic ordinary least squares, the long‐run results suggest the validity of the pollution haven hypothesis for some countries, and that of the pollution halo hypothesis for other countries. The findings are also mixed across Sub‐Sahara African countries for trade openness and urbanization. The results from this study suggest that Sub‐Sahara African countries should continue attracting foreign direct investment, while a certain number of them should put more emphasis on controlling deforestation associated with foreign direct investment inflows to limit greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

中文翻译：

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外国直接投资是否会阻碍撒哈拉以南非洲的森林面积？

外国直接投资是经济增长的引擎。但是，它可能会影响环境质量（改善或恶化的话），这取决于上下文。在多变量框架下，本文旨在研究撒哈拉以南非洲国家外国直接投资与森林砍伐之间的关系，其中经济增长，贸易开放性和城市化是森林砍伐的其他决定因素。分析表明，基于最新的面板数据技术，所有变量都是非平稳的并且是协整的。在应用动态普通最小二乘法时，长期的结果表明，某些国家的污染天堂假说是正确的，而其他国家的污染晕轮假说是正确的。撒哈拉以南非洲国家在贸易开放和城市化方面的发现也参差不齐。这项研究的结果表明，撒哈拉以南非洲国家应继续吸引外国直接投资，而其中一些国家应更加重视控制与外国直接投资流入有关的森林砍伐，以限制大气中的温室气体浓度。