The positive direct and indirect spillover effects of foreign direct investment on growth are often case specific and not necessarily uniform nor easily predicted. Effects of FDI due to international investment policy changes are often confounded by free trade and customs union agreements that occur simultaneously because trade may be a complement to or substitute for FDI. We review the effects of regional trade agreements on FDI and focus on the new Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). With annual data from 1995 to 2019 for post-Soviet countries, three members, the Russian Federation, Belarus, and Kazakhstan and nine non-members, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, we estimate the EAEU integration effect on country FDI flows, post-2010. We control for other determinants, including infrastructure development, natural resource rents, potentially confounding trade flows, the financial crisis, sanctions against Russia and country fixed effects. The formation of the EAEU did not stimulate FDI and while GDP grew it was not associated with higher FDI. Further growth opportunities via FDI lie with relationships with countries outside the EAEU.

This article examines the economic and institutional implications of the resource curse and Dutch disease in resource-rich countries. It investigates how dependence on oil and gas exports influences GDP growth, corruption levels, social development, and governance quality. Using comparative analysis, the study identifies three main patterns: first, countries with strong institutions and diversification strategies, such as Norway and Canada, successfully convert resource wealth into sustainable development; second, countries like Nigeria and Venezuela demonstrate that weak governance leads to low economic performance despite resource abundance; and third, states with mixed outcomes, such as Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia, show moderate progress but remain vulnerable to external shocks. The findings highlight the importance of transparent fiscal policies, investment in human capital, and institutional reform. Natural resource wealth alone does not guarantee prosperity – effective governance is essential to mitigate risks and ensure long-term economic stability.

The study of impact of innovation and diffusion of knowledge for economic growth of European regions and other developed countries is increasingly attracting attention of scientists. Along with this, there are many studies for impact of world economic growth of oil prices. At the same time, there is an insufficient attention to joint assessment and comparative analysis of effectiveness of these internal and external growth factors. Moreover, this important issue has been studing a little in relation to countries with economies in transition. This paper is devoted to the study of the impact of innovation and the knowledge spillover in combination with an assessment of the impact of fluctuations in the world oil price on economic growth of regions of Kazakhstan. Catching-up development models are constructed according to annual data from 2005 to 2016 for 16 regions of Kazakhstan. Calculations based on the panel data with fixed effects have confirmed that costs of technological innovations, their spillovers between regions, healthcare costs, as well as the growth rate of the world oil price positively influenced for economic growth in regions. Moreover, socio-economic conditions reinforced their positive impact on growth. It has established that changes in the world oil price and costs of technological innovations and their spillovers between regions effects at the same order, and impact of health care costs and socio-economic conditions on regional growth is noticeably weaker. The results of the study confirm that for innovation activity is essential for the economic growth of the oil exporting country as well. Keywords: oil prices, R&D, innovations, knowledge spillovers, regional growth, Kazakhstan JEL Classifications: C33, O11, O32, O40 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.9034