Competition schemes and investment in network infrastructure under uncertainty

This paper compares two specific types of competition schemes—service-based and facility-based competition—by focusing on a firm’s incentive to invest in network infrastructure. We show that when monopoly rent is large, facility-based competition means that the initial introduction of infrastructure is made earlier than under service-based competition. However, when monopoly rent and the degree of uncertainty are both small, service-based competition brings about the earlier initial introduction of infrastructure than facility-based competition. The paper includes discussion of the policy implications of these findings.      

Cultural differences,insecure property rights and the mode of entry decision

We develop a theory of a multinational corporation’s optimal mode of entry in a new market. The foreign firm can choose between a licensing agreement, a wholly owned subsidiary or shared control (joint venture). In an environment in which property rights are insecure, opportunism is possible, and the identification of new business opportunities is costly, we show that the relationship between the quality of the institutional environment and the mode of entry decision is non-monotonic. Licensing is preferred if property rights are strictly enforced, while a joint venture is chosen when property rights are poorly enforced. For intermediate situations, the better use of local knowledge made possible by shared control under a joint venture works as a double edged sword. On the one hand, it makes the monitoring activity of the multinational more credible, on the other it offers insurance to both parties, potentially compromising the incentives faced by the local partner. We are grateful to the Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano for providing financial support. For useful comments we would like to thank Klaus Desmet, Cecilia Testa, Henry Wan and Gerald Willmann and seminar participants at Cornell, Ente Luigi Einaudi, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Kiel, Milano, Universidad de Sao Paolo, the Midwest International Economics Meetings in Indianapolis, SAET VI conference in Rhodes, and the City University of Hong Kong Conference on Intellectual Property Rights.     

Competition for foreign direct investment: The role of technology and market structure

We analyze the location choice of a multinational corporation (MNC) between two host countries. We consider both passive and active governments and examine the role of production efficiencies, and of market structure, in the MNC's choice. Our findings include: (i) when the domestic firms export, the country with fewer firms always gets the MNC, but the MNC is indifferent between hosts with firms that have different efficiency levels, (ii) when the domestic firms do not export, the country with more firms gets the MNC if they are sufficiently inefficient, and the MNC locates in the country with less efficient firms.     

The choice of licensing versus direct foreign investment in developing countries

For developing, technology-receiving countries, direct foreign investment is always better than licensing in the short run with sectoral immobility of capital. In the long run with perfect mobility of capital between sectors, the welfare rankings of the two scenarios are dependent upon the amount of domestic capital. The likely case is that the developing country would have a smaller amount of domestic capital than foreign investors, and hence licensing could yield higher national welfare.The authors are indebted to many useful comments of two anonymous referees. The authors, however, are solely responsible for any remaining shortcomings.     

The impact of bilateral investment treaties on foreign direct investment

This paper uses a large panel of OECD data on stocks of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) to evaluate the impact of bilateral investment treaties. For several variants of the knowledge capital model of multinationals, we demonstrate that investment treaties exert a significant positive effect on outward FDI, if they actually are implemented. Moreover, even signing a treaty has a positive, although lower and in most specifications insignificant, effect on FDI. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (4) (2004) 788–804.     

The profitability of U.K. foreign direct investment under colonialism

The effects of discrimination in favor of metropolitan direct investment in colonies on the size and composition of foreign investment there and the profits accruing therefrom have been derived with the help of a simple model. Empirical studies show that the rate of return to U.K. investment in her colonies was significantly higher than in non-British LDCs, although some doubt remains as to the extent to which this result is explained by data imperfections.     

The effects of foreign direct investment on domestic firms

This paper uses firm‐level panel data to investigate empirically the effects of foreign direct investment on the productivity performance of domestic firms in three emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Romania and Poland. To this end, a unique firm‐level panel dataset is used with detailed information on foreign ownership at the firm level. Two main questions are addressed in the present paper: (1) do foreign firms perform better than their domestic counterparts? (2) do foreign firms generate spillovers to domestic firms? The estimation technique in this paper takes potential endogeneity of ownership, spillovers and other factors into account by estimating a fixed effects model using instrumental variables in the general methods of moment technique for panel data. Only in Poland, do foreign firms perform better than firms without foreign participation. Moreover, for all three countries studied here, I find no evidence of positive spillovers to domestic firms, on average. In contrast, on average, there are negative spillovers to domestic firms in Bulgaria and Romania, while there are no spillovers to domestic firms in Poland. This suggests a negative competition effect that dominates a positive technology effect. JEL classification: D24, F14, O52, P31.     

The effect of the euro on foreign direct investment

In this paper the recent effect of the European Monetary Union on inward FDI-flows is examined using a difference-in-differences approach. The estimated results show that the introduction of the euro raised inward FDI flows by approximately 16% within the euro area, by approximately 11% to non-members and weakly by around 8% from non-member countries into the euro area. Moreover, the geographical effects of the euro are explored. The results show partial agglomeration tendencies for the euro area. There are also some indications of increased importance of vertical specialization in the sample.     

The determinants of foreign direct investment into European transition economies

Using a panel dataset of bilateral flows of foreign direct investment (FDI), we study the determinants of FDI from Western countries, mainly in the European Union (EU), to Central and Eastern European ones. We find the most important influences to be unit labor costs, gravity factors, market size, and proximity. Interestingly, host country risk proves not to be a significant determinant. Our empirical work also indicates that announcements about EU Accession proposals have an impact on FDI for the future member countries. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (4) (2004) 775–787.     

The mediating role of export-oriented Japanese foreign direct investment in China

Since the early 1990s, China has become the largest destination of Japanese foreign direct investment （FDI）. Observing this trend, the authors analyzed whether Japanese FDI did promote exports from China to the rest of the world, and more importantly, whether this is a strategy adopted by Japanese multinationals to penetrate not only the Chinese market but also the global market. This analysis takes into account not only the direct effects of FDI on exports, but also the indirect effects, by examining the mediating role of export oriented Japanese FDI in China from 1998 to 2007 through panel analysis. The study contributes to the conceptual framework of indirect relationship among the macroeconomic variables, FDI and exports provides some insights into the strategy of export oriented Japanese FDI in creating a win-win platform for Japan and China.     

Weighted and quadratic models of choice under uncertainty

This paper extends the weighted and quadratic utility models of choice under risk to the context of choice under uncertainty. An important characteristic of the models is that they admit ‘dynamically consistent’ updating rules.     

The importance of clusters for spillovers from foreign direct investment and technology sourcing

This paper examines the link between cluster development andinward foreign direct investment. The conventional policy approachhas been to assume that inward foreign direct investment (FDI)can stimulate significant clustering activity, thus generatingsignificant spillovers. This paper, however, questions thisand shows that, while clusters can generate significant productivityspillovers from FDI, this only occurs in pre-existing clusters.Further, the paper demonstrates that foreign-owned firms thatenter clusters also appropriate spillovers when domestic firmsundertake investment, raising the possibility that clustersare important locations for so called technology, or knowledgesourcing activities by MNEs.     

The impact of foreign direct investment on the relative return to skill

Since the early 1980s, China has adopted favourable economic policies to attract FDI in order to facilitate technology development. Since inward FDI induces either sector‐ or factor‐biased technical progress, the impact of FDI on the distribution of income between skilled and unskilled labour is not trivial. This paper introduces vertical product differentiation to analyze the impact of FDI on the return to skill and concludes that, for a labour abundant country, this impact depends on whether the FDI‐induced technology transfer is skill‐ or labour‐biased, regardless of which sector receives FDI. The analysis shows that FDI with relatively labour‐biased technology will decrease the wage gap while FDI with relatively skill‐biased technology will increase the profit margin of the host country’s exports as well as its wage gap. The findings provide policy insights for FDI recipient countries in balancing wage growth between skilled and unskilled workers by managing inward FDI with relatively labour‐biased and skill‐biased technologies. This is particularly important for China given the expected further increase of inward FDI following its imminent membership of the WTO. JEL classification: F23, J31, P33.     

Bank system reform and outward foreign direct investment of Chinese enterprises

Using a panel of Chinese domestic enterprises over the 2002–2008 period, we assess the effect of the state-owned commercial bank shareholding reform on the domestic enterprises' outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) decisions. We find that a modern market-oriented bank system significantly increases the likelihood of OFDI, especially for the purpose of facilitating trade and services.     

Financial structure,productivity, and risk of foreign direct investment

This study investigates how heterogeneous firms choose their lenders when they raise external finance for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and how the choice of financing structure affects FDI activities. We establish an asymmetric information model to analyze why certain firms use private bank loans while others use public bonds to finance foreign production. The hidden information is the productivity shock to FDI. Banks are willing to monitor the risk of FDI, while bondholders are not; hence, banks act as a costly middleman that enables firms to avoid excessive risk. We show that firms’ productivity levels, the riskiness of FDI, and the relative costs of bank finance and bond finance are three key determinants of the firm’s financing choice. Countries with higher productivity, higher bank costs, or investment in less risky destinations, use more bond finance than bank finance. These results are supported by evidence from OECD countries.     

The impact of endogenous tax treaties on foreign direct investment: theory and evidence

Abstract .  This paper investigates the effect of tax treaties on bilateral stocks of outward FDI. For this purpose we employ a numerically solvable general equilibrium model of trade and multinational firms to study the impact of tax treaties on both welfare and outward FDI. The model indicates under which factor endowment configurations countries gain in welfare when implementing a tax treaty. This motivates an empirical specification of the endogenous selection into implementing new tax treaties. Using data of bilateral OECD outward FDI between 1985 and 2000, we find a significant negative impact of newly implemented tax treaties on outward FDI stocks.     

利用外国直接投资与贸易条件分析

通过大量数据说明。中国FDI主要流向劳动力密集型出口部门。这种流向特征一方面导致中国出口消费品的超额供给,另一方面又带动了对资本、技术等密集型产品的进口FDI需求的增长,使中国的贸易条件趋向恶化。要改善中国的贸易条件,应当进一步加强对外资流向的引导,从根本上增加外资流向资本技术密集型部门和服务业的比重,降低流向一般制造业的比重。     

The internationalisation of research and development by multinational enterprises and the transfer sciences

Overseas R&D in multinational enterprises responds to demand side and supply side factors. On the demand side laboratories can help to adapt or develop products for particular markets. However, since these markets may now be much wider than one country, where a laboratory doing such product development is located may also be influenced by where the best scientific inputs are available (i.e. supply-side factors). Also overseas R&D labs may do basic or applied research not related to current market needs or production conditions. The location of this is even more likely to be influenced by countries' scientific capabilities and capacities. The paper investigates the configuration of these influences on overseas R&D, and especially the role and implications of the supply-side factors.I would like to thank Marina Papanastassiou for permission to use material from her database and for valuable discussion of many of the issues dealt with in this paper.     

In praise of tax havens: International tax planning and foreign direct investment

The multinationalization of corporate investment in recent years has given rise to a number of international tax avoidance schemes that may be eroding tax revenues in industrialized countries, but which may also reduce tax burdens on mobile capital and so facilitate investment. Both the welfare effects of and the optimal response to international tax planning are therefore ambiguous. Evaluating these factors in a simple general equilibrium model, we find that citizens of high-tax countries benefit from (some) tax planning. Paradoxically, if tax rates are not too high, an increase in tax planning activity causes a rise in optimal corporate tax rates, and a decline in multinational investment. Thus fears of a “race to the bottom” in corporate tax rates may be misplaced.     

Microeconomic consequences and macroeconomic causes of foreign direct investment in southern African economies

The authors use a new data set on firms in 13 countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and comparators from other regions to identify the benefits and determinants of FDI in this region. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has facilitated local development in the SADC. Foreign-owned firms perform better than domestic firms, are larger, and locate in richer and better-governed countries and in countries with more competitive financial intermediaries. They are also more likely to export than domestic firms and evidence suggests that they might have positive spillover effects on domestic firms. Based on a standard empirical model, the SADC is attracting the inward FDI per capita that the region's level of income would predict. But this means that there are less capital inflows per capita to the region than there are to wealthier parts of the developing world. Moreover, the SADC is attracting less FDI than comparators for reasons that are possibly more fundamental than current income, namely, countries’ past growth record, demographic structure and the quality of physical infrastructure. Interestingly, inward FDI is less sensitive to variation in income within the SADC than in other parts of the world, but is more responsive to changes in country's openness to trade.