| Abstract: | This article uses firm-level data for the Czech Republic toshow that during 1992–96 foreign investment had the predictedpositive impact on total factor productivity growth of recipientfirms. This result is robust to corrections for the sample biasthat arises because foreign companies tend to invest in firmswhose initial productivity is above average. Together, jointventures and foreign direct investment appear to have a negativespillover effect on firms that do not have foreign partnerships.However, with foreign direct investment alone, the magnitudeof the spillover becomes much smaller and loses significance.This result, in conjunction with the fact that joint venturesand foreign direct investment account for a significant shareof total output in many industries, suggests that further researchis required to determine the extent of knowledge diffusion fromfirms that have foreign links to those that do not. |
