Research Note: The slow growth of foreign direct investment in the Soviet Union successor states

This note reviews the statistical evidence on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the countries of the former Soviet Union taking into account data from both host countries and countries of origin. The main characteristics of this FDI and its variation among the successor states of the Soviet Union are established. The contribution of FDI to economic transition is so far limited to some sectors and regions, and unlikely to accelerate in the near future.
JEL classification: F21, F23, P31.     

The impact of foreign direct investment on horizontal export diversification: empirical evidence

Using data on stocks of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from 131 countries spanning the years 1984 to 2004 and the number of products exported by each country, we examine the effect of FDI on horizontal export diversification. To quantify the effects, we utilize parametric (quantile) and semi-parametric econometric methods. Results from both approaches indicate that, in general, an increase in the stock of FDI enhances the horizontal diversification of exports. The actual magnitude of the effect however, varies greatly across countries depending on the existing stock of FDI and stage of diversification, giving rise to an almost inverted U-shaped relationship. A further look at our results provides useful insights on the circumstances under which FDI may aid or inhibit the horizontal expansion of exports.     

外商直接投资对中国对外贸易影响的实证分析

本文以中国和其它24个国家或地区的最近3年的外贸和外资的实际数据为基础,用统计计量学方法对外商直接投资(FDI)和国际贸易关系进行实证研究,定量论证了FDI的贸易促进作用,在此基础上,还对中国与各个国家或地区之间贸易规模差异进行了阐述.     

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.     

Outward foreign direct investment and domestic innovation performance: evidence from China

The existing literature has explored the existence of reverse technology spillover through outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), which means domestic firms improve their technological innovation and productivity due to overseas investment activities. This paper aims to examine how the host country affects reverse technology spillover from OFDI. The findings show domestic innovation performance (DIP) is positively related to OFDI in developed countries while it is negatively related to OFDI in transitional and emerging markets. It is also found that financial development and human capital weaken the positive relationship between OFDI in developed countries and DIP and also weaken the negative relationship between OFDI in transitional and emerging markets and DIP. These results are further confirmed through robustness checks.     

Regional analysis of the impact of inward foreign direct investment on economic growth in the Chinese electronic industry

This article empirically investigates the impact of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on regional economic growth in the Chinese electronic industry (CEI). Utilizing a provincial-level panel data spanning the period 1989 to 2009, we specify and estimate an endogenous economic growth model for the CEI. Empirical results indicate that, for the coastal region, FDI inflows have been growth enhancing, while in the central and western regions the impact of FDI on economic growth is mixed, depending on the channel of capital flow. Results also indicate that exports, human capital, science and technology investment and fixed asset investment are growth enhancing, while unemployment and foreign R&D investment are growth impeding in the CEI.     

The impact of trade openness on technical efficiency in the agricultural sector of the European Union

The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of trade openness on technical efficiency of the European Union’s (EU) agricultural sector. There are no systematic theories linking trade policy to technical efficiency; hence, the relation between trade liberalization and technical efficiency is fundamentally ambiguous. Stochastic frontier analysis is used to model the relationship between EU’s production resources and agricultural output, as well as the importance of trade openness on technical efficiency of a country. The data for 16 of the 28 EU members were available for the period 1980–2007 including land, capital, fertilizer, labour, agricultural GDP, foreign direct investments (FDI), exports and import data. Results indicate that trade openness has an immediate, negative impact on efficiency in the EU agricultural sector. Over time, however, trade openness does increase efficiency. The FDI outflows increase efficiency. This suggests that an initial reduction in capital supply forces EU nations to utilize other factor inputs more efficiently. However, there is the unexamined potential that over time the depletion of capital results in a decrease in efficiency. Finally, formerly communist member-countries of the EU are found to have the lowest technical efficiency scores whereas Southern European nations have the highest efficiency.     

The impact of foreign direct investment on productivity: New evidence for developing countries

We provide new empirical evidence on the relationship between inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and total factor productivity (TFP) growth using cross-country data for 51 developing countries over the period 1984–2010. Our results suggest a weak direct effect of FDI on TFP growth but, after accounting for the roles of human capital and institutions as contingencies in the FDI-TFP growth relationship, we find a robust FDI-induced productivity growth response dependent on these ‘absorptive capacities’. However, the relevance of the human capital contingency effect diminishes when the effect of institutions is also considered, which suggests that improving institutions is relatively more important than human capital development for developing countries to realise productivity gains from FDI.     

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.     

Chinese foreign direct investment in Australia: policy issues for the resource sector 1

The past 18 months have seen Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Australian resource sector become an issue of policy interest. There are two big questions that the prospects of a significant rise in FDI from China into the Australian resources sector have raised. Is the surge of FDI into Australian mining and energy consistent with achieving the traditional gains from foreign investment? And are there any particular problems associated with investment from foreign state-owned enterprises or state-managed sovereign wealth funds? These are among the questions addressed in this paper. The paper argues that there are no issues that cannot be dealt with under the umbrella of the established test of ‘national interest’ in managing the growth of Chinese FDI into the Australian minerals sector. It argues that a confusion has been introduced into policy over the questions of state ownership and supplier–buyer relations in respect of Chinese investments and that clarifying these issues is likely to be important to Australia's capturing the full benefits from the growth of Chinese resources demand and longer term economic and strategic interests in China.     

An alternative approach to the monitoring of technological diffusion via foreign direct investment: evidence from the Greek manufacturing sector

The existing studies of foreign direct investment and the corresponding technological diffusion process that they generate, focus either on specific parameters of the production process in isolation, or they combine certain parameters to construct indices that are not consistent across studies. The present analysis proposes an alternative approach that captures the entire production process and multinational firms are viewed as the platform that transfers more advanced technologies to the host countries. As multinational firms are able to utilise more efficiently the available production process, an efficiency gap ensues between the domestically owned firms of a country and the multinational firms that operate in it. We capture and provide a measure and a monitoring mechanism of the technological diffusion process via foreign direct investment through the evolution of the efficiency gap between the two groups of firms whilst controlling for other variables that might contribute to such a gap. We apply our approach to the manufacturing sector of the Greek economy that experiences a consistent presence of foreign direct investment inflows over the time period 2001–2007.     

Home country employment and foreign direct investment: evidence from the Italian case

The present paper provides further insights on the relationshipbetween home country employment and foreign direct investment(FDI) undertaken by national firms. The unit of analysis iseach ensemble of firms operating in the same industrial sectorand localised in the same geographical region. That allows usto capture both direct and indirect effects of foreign productionon the parent's environment, which arise through the generationof linkages and externalities. Empirical evidence has been providedwith reference to the Italian case in the decade 1985–95.Results suggest that the impact of outward FDI on the labourintensity of domestic production is negative in the case ofvertical investment undertaken—especially by smaller firms—inless developed countries, and positive for horizontal and market-seekinginvestments in advanced countries.     

Wages and wage growth in Poland: The role of foreign direct investment

In recent years Poland has received substantial inflows of foreign direct investment. This paper combines detailed labour market data with industry data from the Polish manufacturing sector to examine the effects of foreign direct investment inflows on wages and wage growth. The empirical evidence we assemble suggests that workers in industries with greater foreign presence enjoy higher wages and higher wage growth. This effect appears to be robust to a variety of empirical approaches, estimation techniques and specification checks.
JEL classification: F23, J31, 019, P33.     

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.     

Re‐entering Europe: Does European Union candidacy boost foreign direct investment?

This study examines the ability of the Central and Eastern European countries to attract foreign direct investment during the first decade of transition. After considering a model of profit maximizing firms, we undertake an empirical investigation of the factors that determine multinational firms’ location decisions within Europe. We find empirical support for the traditional market size and cost factors. In addition, we examine the effect of key European Union announcements regarding the accession process. Results indicate that the announcements had statistically significant and quantitatively important effects on foreign direct investment in the Central and Eastern European candidate countries.     

浅析国际直接投资自由化进程中的中国外资政策

随着全球经济一体化的演进，国际直接投资日趋自由化流动。国际直接投资自由化的兴起在全球经济的增长和国际分工深化的进程中发挥了越来越重要的作用。我国是利用国际直接投资的大国，目前正处于向市场经济转轨的关键时期，经济体制和市场结构还不完善，如何在确保国家经济安全的前提下，推进国际直接投资自由化进程，积极合理地扩大引资规模，应成为人们关注的焦点问题。因此，本文试图探寻国际直接投资自由化的经济机理，总结出国际投资自由化的有效制度安排对现行制度进行调整，以期更好地把握和指导我国改革开放实践及进一步融入国际直接投资自由化进程。     

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.     

Foreign direct investment and its impact on real wages: evidence from Turkish micro-level data

This paper analyzes the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) on wages, using Turkish firm-level data from 2003 to 2010, a period which coincides with significant FDI inflows both in manufacturing and service sector firms in the region. We explore the possibility of increased foreign presence translating into shifts in either labor demand or supply curves thereby resulting in changing the total wage bill or wage per worker in the host country. To empirically test this relationship we employ a dynamic specification of the wage equation. After addressing endogeneity concerns, the results reveal that foreign presence measured in terms of intra- and inter-sectoral linkages is related to higher wage bills in the host economy, hence strengthening the argument for attracting greater foreign investment to enhance labor welfare.     

外商投资对中国就业影响的实证分析

外商投资存在直接就业效应和间接就业效应,可以用外商投资流量和存量分别加以度量,运用中国1984～2005年的数据进行计量分析的结论表明：1993年以前外商投资的直接就业效应非常显著,负的间接就业效应也很显著;1993年以后年外商投资的直接就业效应减小。负的间接就业效应也减弱。