Co-integration

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is frequently regarded as a key driver of global economic integration because it brings job opportunities, capital investment, and business experience. The current study examines the impact of foreign direct investment on Afghanistan's economic growth using time-series data from 2007 to 2019, which are collected from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund's annual macroeconomic data sources for the country. Foreign direct investment (FDI), trade (Trd), inflation (InfR), and real interest rate (Int) are independent variables for regressing on this country's gross domestic product (GDP), while "GDP" is as a dependent variable. The method of ordinary least squares (OLS) was utilized to investigate the impact of these variables on Afghanistan's economic growth. For unit root test, the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) one was utilized, while co-integration, Granger causality, and the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) were all used to capture two-way linkages between variables and were shown to hold in the long run. Our findings indicate that foreign direct investment and trade have a negative and significant impact on Afghanistan's economic performance in the short run but that all variables except inflation have a positive and significant impact on economic growth in the long run. According to the study, a rigorous policy mix is required to absorb "FDI" while supporting infant industries and reducing Afghanistan's balance of payments deficit for growth and future development.

Iran and Afghanistan share deep historical, cultural and civilizational ties. Iran is one of Afghanistan’s largest trading partners. However, economic sanctions have disrupted bilateral trade between these two neighboring countries through various channels. This paper presents an empirical analysis of the impact of economic sanctions on trade between Iran and Afghanistan in the period 2004-2018 by applying the Gravity Model, while the estimation is performed using fully modified least-squares technique. Findings of the research indicate that the imposition of any strong economic sanctions, in the long run, not only during the sanctions period but also in the post-sanctions period, has increased trade between Iran and Afghanistan. On the other hand, weak sanctions during the sanctions period have reduced trade; nevertheless, weak sanctions in the post-sanctions period have increased bilateral trade. Development of trade cooperation between the two countries, facilitation of trade affairs and expansion of joint regional and international cooperation should be on the agenda of economic policymakers in Iran and Afghanistan.